Good morning, CharterFolk.
Today we are pleased to present a Contributor Column from Brent Bushey, the CEO of Fuel OKC.
We provide a bio for Brent below.
Brent serves as the CEO for Fuel OKC, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the number of students attending a quality public school in OKC. Prior to joining Fuel OKC, Brent spent the previous ten years as the founding Executive Director of the Oklahoma Public School Resource, a statewide education non-profit serving public schools across the state of Oklahoma.
Brent and his wife Kirsten are the proud parents of two daughters currently attending public school in Edmond, OK. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and also serves on a number of non-profit boards including the Oklahoma School of Science and Math, Keystone Adventure School and Farm and the Statewide Independent Living Commission.
Brent holds an MA in Public Administration from George Washington University and a BA in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy from Michigan State University.
Great Schools Can Reverse the Trend of Families Leaving City Centers
Oklahoma has made national news in education over the past few years at a remarkable clip. We approved (and then denied) the nation’s first religious charter school, and we’ve had a State Superintendent who was constantly in the headlines, focusing on social issues and either ignoring or glossing over our state’s low academic outcomes.
While you’ve likely seen at least some of these stories, you likely haven’t seen the positive news emanating from Oklahoma and Oklahoma City.
On the charter front, Harvard University published a report in 2023, comparing the NAEP scores of charter sectors across the country and found that Oklahoma’s charters are the sixth highest-performing in the country. The study also looked at the achievement gap between Black and White students in the state as well as Hispanic and White students and found that the achievement gap in both cases is the smallest in the nation.
Separate from education, Oklahoma City is growing fast — the OKC metro area has seen a 19% population increase since 2010, adding more than 233,000 new residents. This growth has occurred as the city has invested in itself – approving four separate sales tax initiatives over the past 30 years – with investments focused on improving the quality of life. This approach has worked as U.S. News and World Report ranked OKC as the Nation’s Best Big City to Live in its 2025-2026 rankings.
But not every part of the city shares in this growth. In the urban core, the population of residents under the age of 18 has declined by 6%, helping explain why, even amid regional economic expansion and record development, the number of students attending public schools within the boundaries of Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS) has decreased by 4% over the past decade.
This trend is particularly surprising as charter schools in OKC’s urban core have more than doubled over this same period, from just over 5,000 students to over 11,000 in the 2024-2025 school year (and growth this school year is expected to increase the charter population over 13,000). During that same period, OKCPS district schools have lost more students than charter schools have gained, leading to an overall net decline in the number of students attending public schools within the district’s boundaries.
This trend underscores the urgency of creating schools that attract and retain families in the city.
Fuel OKC’s mission is to increase the number of students attending a quality public school in the urban core of Oklahoma City. Fuel uses the state’s A-F report card to define quality with schools receiving an A or B deemed quality schools. Using this metric, 18 of the 84 public schools in the boundaries of Oklahoma City Public Schools meet Fuel’s bar for quality.
If we take a closer look at the 18 quality schools, we find the following:
- Oklahoma City operates four of the 18 schools; all four are selective admissions “enterprise” schools, more commonly known as magnet schools.
- Six charter school networks operate the other 14 quality schools, and all six networks are “home grown” networks led by local educators and non-profit boards.
- These 18 schools serve approximately 9,000 of the 44,000 students, a 20% market share.
- The charter sector serves roughly the same demographics as the district, with a similar number of students on free and reduced lunch and similar racial demographics.
Fuel has focused on a straightforward but powerful strategy to increase this percentage:
- Invest in proven networks. Fuel has provided grants to four high-performing charter networks (Santa Fe South, Dove, John Rex, and Harding Charter Prep) to support their plans to expand and serve more families in the city’s center.
- Support new school creation. The organization has backed one emerging network (RISE STEAM Academy) as it launches its first school, broadening the city’s portfolio of quality options.
- Build great educators and leaders. Fuel invests in the pipelines that develop and retain outstanding teachers and school leaders — the foundation of every great school.
- Empower families. Through EnrollOKC.org, families now have a single place to learn about every public school option in the city. In December 2025, Fuel is launching a common application for all charter schools in OKC, making it easier than ever for parents to make informed choices for their children.
Looking ahead, Fuel OKC’s work is expanding beyond growth and access to tackle one of the city’s most pressing challenges: urban revitalization. Fuel believes great schools can help reverse the trend of families choosing to leave the city’s center in search of better school options. That’s why Fuel is actively exploring real estate partnerships with developers who see the potential for schools to anchor community renewal. The organization’s most significant effort to date is its partnership with the Crossroads Renewal Project, a visionary plan to transform Oklahoma’s largest shuttered mall into a new “main street” for South OKC – one that brings schools, services, and families back to the heart of the city.
As we look forward, we believe that OKC is a city with its best days ahead. We’re proud of the progress that we’ve made as a city, and we believe that our future growth can improve the quality of lives of ALL citizens by focusing on improving the city’s educational options. Our vision at Fuel OKC is to increase the number of students attending a quality school from 20% to 50% by 2030, and we think the growth of quality charter schools will be a key driver for this growth in quality schools as well as the continued quality of life for residents across the city.