Good morning, CharterFolk.
Today we are delighted to share a Contributor Column from John Engler, the Former Governor of the State of Michigan.
We provide a bio for Governor Engler below.
John Engler was 22 when he was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1970. He went on to serve in the Michigan State Senate from 1979 to 1990 and was Senate Majority Leader from 1984 to 1990, when he was elected Governor. Engler’s years as Michigan’s top executive were marked by an unprecedented focus on education reform, ranging from the creation of charter schools to the state takeover of Detroit’s failing public school system and the creation of several educational incentives for students, most notably the Michigan merit award to help more Michigan students go to college.
Engler remains active on many issues and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Charter Schools Institute. In 2018-19 he served as the Interim President of Michigan State University, his alma mater. Before that, he served as the President of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. corporations, and as the President and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers. In 2001, he was honored as a Governing Public Official of the Year.
The Time for Charter School Supporters to Get Our Acts Together is Now
While many people are busy orienting themselves to new political dynamics emanating out of Washington, we are fast approaching another round of elections that will likely have far greater implications for our nation’s charter schools than anything that has happened in the last few months.
Why is that?
Because American education policy is primarily driven at the state level, with state governors having more influence over education than any other policymakers. Over the next 22 months, the country will see 38 gubernatorial races. Two of those will take place in 2025 in Virginia and New Jersey, while 36 will occur in 2026. Sixteen of these will be open races where incumbents are termed out. Many will happen in battleground states, and some pundits are predicting that 20 or more could end up being highly competitive contests.
In total, the 2026 cycle has the potential to be the most consequential election for the national charter school movement in recent memory.
That is why I have a very direct message for CharterFolk nationwide: The time for all of us to get our acts together politically is NOW!
I am a long-time champion of charter schools. In October 1993, I proposed Michigan’s original charter schools legislation. I was proud to sign it into law in January, 1994. Since that time, Michigan’s charter schools have grown to serve more than 150,000 students. Respected research from CREDO and others shows that students attending charter schools are learning at rates exceeding their peers in district public schools. In Detroit, where half of the students in the district now attend charter schools, research released last year by the Public Policy Institute showed that all boats have risen in terms of student achievement while historic achievement gaps have been narrowed.
But excellent results with students are not what ultimately make it possible for more charter school growth to occur. Instead, the status quo is redoubling efforts to resist charter school growth. Policymakers in many red states are also proposing vouchers and ESAs that leave some worried that charter schools could lose their central role in expanding educational opportunities. In sum, charters are at risk of losing political ground on both the left and right.
I remain optimistic. In fact, I believe that the charter school movement could be entering a period of far greater momentum and impact than it has ever experienced before. Achieving this depends on us — we have to get our acts together politically. That means that we must not only engage policymakers across the political spectrum but also build the infrastructure to ensure that millions of charter school families fully participate in the political process to be difference-makers at the ballot box.
Building Political Infrastructure for Charter Schools
It is time for the charter school movement to move beyond advocacy and into full political involvement. Doing this requires us to re-think the structure of our state-level organizations to couple the best aspects of 501(c)(3) nonprofits that focus on education, research, and public awareness, with the best aspects of 501(c)(4) organizations that can more directly engage in political advocacy like raising funds, endorsing candidates, and mobilizing parents to vote.
This new type of arrangement is important because, though millions of families have experienced the positive impact of charter schools, too often their voices are not heard. Through a better political infrastructure, we can organize these families — as well as teachers and community leaders — into an influential voting bloc.
We can mobilize this bloc through modern political tools, like data-driven voter outreach, digital engagement, and grassroots organizing to increase voter turnout. When millions of charter families, teachers, and community leaders show up to vote, students win. We will see policy changes that respond to student needs rather than the status quo.
We know this new arrangement can be effective because we have a model: Starlee Coleman, our new CEO at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, blazed a new trail in Texas by creating a formidable C3/C4 advocacy and political organization that greatly contributed to increased charter school momentum there. Similar evolution of advocacy infrastructure in other states will make our movement stronger.
Winning Over the Next Generation of Republicans
I am also optimistic because school choice is on the rise. The Republican Party has long been the primary home of charter school supporters, and it remains so today. Some believe that Republicans’ increased commitment to private school choice will translate into a decreased commitment to charter schools. This simply isn’t true. Instead, to date, we see the opposite. Everywhere that new private school choice policies are approved, charter school enrollment growth accelerates.
So, though Republicans are embracing an ever-expanding set of policies to broaden school choice, we should recognize that now is not a time to be taking their support for granted. That includes making sure that new conservative leaders understand why charter schools matter — not just as a policy issue, but as a winning education issue that resonates with parents, teachers, and communities across the country.
The Blue-State Opportunity: More Charter-Friendly Democrats
While charter school support has traditionally been stronger among Republicans, we must not forget that charter schools are a bipartisan, centrist policy. For example, Michigan’s first charter school law passed in an era of divided government. I worked with — and won the support from — the other side of the aisle because of the hope that charter schools represent. The same is true about other pro-charter governors who enacted their state’s first charter laws: Colorado’s Roy Romer, California’s Pete Wilson, and New York’s George Pataki.
But here’s the hard truth: for much of the past decade, the number of Democratic charter school supporters has been shrinking. After COVID lockouts and declining NAEP scores, many Democrats who have been reflexively supportive of the status quo and the teacher’s unions can no longer defend the harm being done to children. With traditional public schools struggling so mightily and failing so many, it is simply not politically viable to keep offering them blanket protection. Many of the places where public schools are most broken — urban school districts across the country — are exactly where charter schools have demonstrated they can offer better opportunities to low-income, African-American, and Latino families, the very populations Democrats claim to represent.
It creates a moment of opportunity for Democratic leaders who want results and who care about kids to step forward. And it creates an opportunity for us to engage these candidates early, introduce them to parents whose children have benefited from charter schools, and show them that supporting charter schools is both good policy and good politics.
2026: A Defining Moment for the Charter School Movement
The 2026 governor races will be a defining moment for the future of the charter school movement. If we prepare properly—by engaging Republicans and Democrats alike, by building political infrastructure, and by mobilizing millions of charter school families to vote — we will continue to grow the movement.
But if we sit back and hope for the best, we risk seeing a political landscape that becomes more difficult for charter schools. We risk losing momentum in states where we should be gaining ground. We risk letting opponents of school choice define the debate and shape the policies that will affect millions of students for years to come.
This is a battle worth fighting, and it is one we can win. But only if we organize and build the political power needed to ensure success — starting NOW!