Sam Duell is the Policy Director for Charter Schools at ExcelinEd.
Thirty years ago on June 4, 1991, Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson signed bills S.F. 630 and H.F. 773 into law. These bills, authored by Sen. Ember Reichgott Junge, Rep. Becky Kelso and co-author Sen. Greg Olson, created the first charter school law in the nation – a law that would influence nearly every other state, creating the conditions for building more than 7,500 new public schools that are sought by more than 3.3 million students in 2021. Much has happened in the thirty years that followed, but what happened before the first charter school bill was signed?
The story of Minnesota’s charter law does not start with Gov. Carlson, though he played a significant role. His predecessor, Govenor Rudy Perpich, and his policy team prepared acres of policy in the 1980s and early 1990s. In fact, Gov. Perpich’s Education Commissioner, Ruth Randall, wrote a book called School Choice: Issues & Answers with Keith Geiger, then President of the National Education Association. The book was published six months before Minnesota passed the first charter school law and provided a wide-ranging discussion about school choice that included voices from both the Republican and Democratic parties. In the forward, Gov. Perpich writes,
In 1985, I proposed Access to Excellence, an education reform package giving parents the right to select the schools their children attend. For the first time in this country, parents and students as consumers of public education became statewide public policy. For the first time in public education, parents were given a substantive role in education.
When parents and children were given the power of choice, schools in Minnesota found that ‘business as usual’ could well mean ‘going out of business.’ To retain and attract students, schools began tailoring programs to the children.
Foreword by Gov. Rudy Perpich, School Choice: Issues & Answers, 1991
The publication of the book was preceded by a 1990 report from the National Governors’ Association called Consensus for Change: Achieving Educational and Environmental Excellence. Governor Campbell of South Carolina and Governor Clinton of Arkansas presented the report to a convening of the NGA in Mobile, AL on August 5, 1990 and signified a “recommitment” to education reform. The conversation that day was wide-ranging and strangely familiar to almost any attentive American today, covering such topics as assessment, accountability, climate change, and rapidly rising inflation. To see it yourself, check it out on C-Span.
To recommit you must have a commitment in the first place. Looking back, it’s important for policymakers to remember that policies, like the establishment of charter schools, don’t come from the ether. Rather, these policies are often grounded in a deep understanding of the needs and desires of constituents. In almost every case, leaders solve problems creatively, but they have to recognize that a problem exists in the first place. This is exactly what 1983’s report from US National Commission on Excellence in Education hoped to achieve. A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform did not mince words. Just look at this paragraph from its opening letter.
History is not kind to idlers. The time is long past when American’s destiny was assured simply by an abundance of natural resources and inexhaustible human enthusiasm, and by our relative isolation from the malignant problems of older civilizations. The world is indeed one global village. We live among determined, well-educated, and strongly motivated competitors. We compete with them for international standing and markets, not only with products but also with the ideas of our laboratories and neighborhood workshops. America’s position in the world may once have been reasonably secure with only a few exceptionally well-trained men and women. It is no longer.
Can you see the thread? Charter schools and education reform more broadly exist because this nation faces a perennial challenge – how to ensure that every child has access to excellent education. If the problem did not exist, we likely would not need the solution.
Let’s fast-forward to 2005. Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans and a nearly 300 year-old city was changed forever. When the water began to recede and schools needed to be rebuilt, the state used the policy they had to address the needs of New Orleanians – in this case that meant charter schools. It wasn’t a simple solution, but it turned out to be one that worked. According to a new May 2021 report from Douglas Harris of Tulane University and Matthew Larsen of Lafayette College, before the hurricane only about 23 percent of the city’s 12th graders enrolled in college. After the state allowed charter schools to rebuild schools in New Orleans, 34 percent of high school graduates enrolled in college.
If it weren’t for a set of policies that allowed charter schools to exist, then students in New Orleans might have less opportunity than they do today. And charter schools might not exist had it not been for Gov. Rudy Perpich and the strong legislative leaders in Minnesota. And those leaders may not have recommitted to education reform had it not been for the focus of the National Governors’ Association. And the NGA may not have thought to recommit had it not been for a report that described pervasive problems in our public education outcomes.
Before Govenor Jeb Bush was elected to office in Florida, he helped secure the passage of Florida’s charter school law and founded one of the first charter schools in the state with T. Willard Fair, head of the Greater Miami Urban League. He was active in the school’s first years and understood what communities needed in order to have desirable school options. Earlier this month, Gov. Bush sat down with Sen. Ember Reichgott Junge and the National Charter Schools Founder Library to memorialize that story and celebrate 25 years of charter schools in the Sunshine State. Soon after Gov. Bush was elected, he led the passage of the A+ Plan for Education and Florida has seen over 20 years of rising student achievement. Gov. Bush understood the issues facing parents, schools, and communities in a very real way when he became governor in part because of his experience founding a charter school.
Here’s the point: At ExcelinEd, we say, “Policy changes lives.” I would add to that. You simply don’t get great policy without a recognition of reality, without seeing things as they really are. In order to pass great policy, you need at least three things: 1) verifiable and actionable data that can describe the situation, 2) the courage to recognize the truth of the situation, and 3) leaders who are willing to do something about it.
So, today, on this 30th anniversary, I hope policymakers will look back and remember what can happen when leaders choose to approach real problems actively and creatively. When policymakers choose to do just that, they absolutely can change lives. Just ask the 3.3 million students across the country that attend a charter school.
