Good day, CharterFolk.
This week Andy and I are happy to release a WonkyFolk discussion with Pat Brantley, the CEO of Friendship Public Charter Schools in Washington, DC, and the latest leader to be inducted into the National Charter School Hall of Fame.
The three of us had been planning this in-person discussion at Friendship for months, but it then happened to occur just a few days after Starlee gave CharterFolk across the country a heads-up that Pat had been selected, along with Sarah Usdin, founder of New Schools for New Orleans, to join the National Charter School Hall of Fame!
Quite serendipitous!
And ample evidence that the National Alliance could not possibly have chosen a better new Folk for the Hall of Fame.
Here is a link to the podcast and a transcript of the conversation on the CharterFolk website.
You can also access the discussion here on YouTube. You can find us on Spotify here. And on Apple Podcasts here. An archive of all past recordings is available on our website.
Pat traces her path from Newark to Princeton to Dr. Dorothy Height’s civil rights work to Friendship House — and the moment the idea for a charter school was born. From there: what she says to charter critics, why she sees the public vs. public-charter divide as the sector’s greatest failure, how she weighs growth against proficiency, the line-by-line math behind DC’s charter budget shortfall, why hitting 50% market share makes charters “a target” rather than a protection, the case for “adopting” struggling schools, and, in a live audience Q&A, the role of Black male educators and what charter leaders owe their communities heading into the DC elections.
In this episode:
- Pat’s path from Newark to Princeton to Dr. Dorothy Height’s civil rights work — and how she landed at Friendship House
- Donald Hentz, Friendship House’s reinvention “to be about children,” and the birth of the charter school idea
- Building Friendship into 15 campuses serving nearly 5,000 students across DC
- Why Pat names schools for local history — Friendship Armstrong, Friendship Blow Pierce — rather than erasing it
- What she says to charter critics: “I’m not listening to the critics. I’m listening to the parents.”
- Why the public vs. public-charter divide is, in her view, the sector’s greatest failure
- Growth vs. absolute proficiency — and why both have to matter
- Why report cards and transparent accountability still matter, and DC’s new accountability framework
- The 25-year question: does DC have a North Star, and what Indianapolis got right — and at what cost
- The DC budget fight — Pat’s line-by-line math on the per-pupil shortfall and $50 million in fixed costs shifted off DCPS
- Why hitting 50% market share gives charters “visibility” and makes them “a target” — not protection
- The case for mergers — or “adoption” — of struggling schools, and the turnaround of Friendship Ideal
- A live audience Q&A: the ecosystem responsibility of high-performing charters, the role of Black male educators, and what charter leaders owe their communities in an election year
- Dorothy Height’s “fist” metaphor and “one Friendship, one band, one sound”
Show Notes & Resources: