1988: The Launch of an Idea

A Nation at Risk created a new paradigm and a new sense of urgency for improving the quality of America’s schools. Many studies were issued in the years following Risk’s release. Chief among them were: The Nation Responds by the U.S. Department of Education (1984) cataloged state-based initiatives; Time for Results by the National Governors Association (1986) that, among other things, proposed parental choice; and A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21^st Century by the Carnegie Forum (1986) on creating “a profession of well-educated teachers prepared to assume new powers and responsibilities to redesign schools for the future.”

One champion of school redesign was the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Al Shanker. He believed in a bottom-up restructuring of public education that empowered teachers with new, professional opportunities to best educate their students.

Some big-city school districts had been trying this type of bottom-up restructuring for some time. New York City, Cambridge, and Dade County helped lead the coupling of higher operating autonomy for some schools with increased parental choice within the district. Minnesota became the first state to provide parents with some choice outside of their district—first, in 1985 by allowing high school students to dually enroll in postsecondary institutions, and in 1987 by providing for choice between school districts.

In March 1988, Shanker shared his vision for bottom-up restructuring in a speech at the National Press Club. He proposed allowing teachers to create new, autonomous public schools in existing school buildings.  He called these “charter schools.” Where did Shanker get this name? He borrowed it from a report from researcher Ray Budde that called for the same type of innovation. 

The Minnesota Citizens League, led by Ted Kolderie, began building on the “charter” idea and how to put it into effect.