Ember Reichgott Junge discussed the unique characteristics of charter schools, highlighting their energy, flexibility, and community engagement. She emphasized the critical role of quality board members in overseeing finances and academic success. Junge shared her personal experience with leadership improvement and the importance of board evaluations. She also discussed the evolution of authorizers, the need for multiple authorizers, and the historical significance of the Minnesota charter school law. Junge advocated for teacher-powered schools, the importance of preserving chartering’s original intent, and the need for better public understanding and collaboration between traditional and charter schools.
Transcript
Action Items
- Donate historical documents related to charter school pioneering efforts to the National Charter Schools Founders Library.
- Facilitate conversations between traditional public schools and charter public schools through the National Charter Schools Founders Library to find common ground and opportunities for collaboration.
- Educate parents and allies about the facts and proper language around charter schools being public schools.
- Provide financial support and resources to the National Charter Schools Founders Library to enable more outreach, training, and advocacy efforts.
Outline
Do you see a difference when you visit a charter school?
- Charter schools in the United States and other countries are full of energy, brightness and joy. They are engaged and never sit in desks.
- Some schools put on their doors the name of
- Quality board members make a huge difference for the success of a charter school. They are responsible for overseeing the finances and academic success.
- One of the most important things about a board.
Why is it important to have authorizers?
- A personal story about starting a new executive position at a large nonprofit in Minnesota.
- The first year didn’t go so well at her new job as an executive, and she had a rude awakening when she was evaluated by her team members.
- Why historically it was important to have authorizers, and why authorizing is so important in Minnesota.
- The role of authorizers is great in the sense of supporting the charter school so that it can be successful, and also having many authorizers.
How compromise is not defeat.
- After three years of work after going past incredible opposition, she went home and cried because she thought it would never happen. She was wrong. Compromise is not defeat.
- The next day, a republican senator was on the senate floor in Washington DC lauding the passage of this charter school law in Minnesota.
- How a bipartisan initiative led by a moderate democrat led to 45 states adopting the charter school idea.
- What she wishes was in the legislation that wasn’t perfect.
Three things we didn’t think about.
- Charter schools need to improve education, but years later, they didn’t think about three things they really should have thought about.
- Charter public schools don’t get property tax revenue, so the nation had to step up to help charter schools by giving them credit enhancement funds.
- Minnesota adopted higher education authorizers and nonprofit authorizers, including the audubon society, to make it a more robust charter sector.
- The importance of having multiple authorizers in the state.
What is chartering? A strategy?
- Chartering is a strategy to open the door to innovation and try something new. It is not a school, but a strategy.
- Charter schools are generally new charter public schools, and they are going to be created year after year differently.
- Some people believe charter schools are the reason why there are problems in education, but chartering was to give parents the choice and more opportunities for their students.
- Prior to 1991, there was a report called a nation at risk, a wake up call to America that their education system was not working well.
Encouraged by chartering.
- Teacher-powered schools. Al Shanker, president of the american federation of teachers, wanted to see a charter school where teachers could be the leaders.
- The teacher-powered movement is all over the country, but it grew out of Minnesota, the most significant innovation in chartering.
- There are some who believe that charter schools should provide religious education. Some believe that religious teaching should be allowed in charter public schools.
- Chartering is first come first serve, serving all students, no tuition charge, no religious education, no sectarian teaching.
The importance of preserving the records of leaders.
- The library is a resource for both charter public schools and district schools, and it can be used as a resource in innovation.
- The national charter school founders library is being developed.
- The library is a museum of chartering. It is a training tool and a tool to advocate to keep chartering what it originally was.
- The library’s mission is to keep the integrity of the chartering law alive forever, so people can have that strategy forever.
How did you get into the field of education?
- He started chartering because he was looking for more opportunities for Minnesota students. He had no idea that it was going to go beyond the borders of Minnesota.
- He was amazed that this law could be creating that this could actually go to another state.
- Chartering has been 30 years old and needs to mature internally and externally, including improving training of school leaders and improving messaging.
- Charter school students need to be able to find common ground and find ways to help each other, like a district in texas.
Regulation for accountability and accountability.
- Charter schools traded regulation for accountability, but regulation is coming back because of the misinformation both at the federal and state level.
- Washington DC has gotten a truce with regulation.
- Chartering in Minnesota passed with 56% of minority republicans and 42% of majority democrats, and was bipartisan.
- New and innovative ideas only come from the middle, not the extremes.
Innovation in charter schools.
- Innovation in charter schools, from labor-oriented schools to schools that are learning about aviation to schools where students can become pilots.
- Charter schools in Hawaii and Guam, where the chartering strategy is being used to help preserve their indigenous culture.
- She explains who inspired her to draft the legislation in Minnesota for charter schools and what she was reading and hearing at the time.
- She explains why she decided to take the chartering bill forward, and why she didn’t do a lot of reading.
The story of drafting the nation’s first charter law.
- Several years ago, she penned the story of drafting the nation’s first charter school law, zero chance of passage, and why she decided to write it.
- The book was written as a memoir to show her experience and how difficult it was for her.
- The national charter schools founders library won the grand prize nationally in 2013.
- How to encourage parents and citizens to work best with their elected officials, citizens and parents have very strong voices and are the key to changing any of these myths or myths.
- Oral history can be used to help a state tell their pioneering charter school story for their 20th or 25th anniversary.
- Financial support is needed to dedicate staff and time to the effort to do more of this work on the media and social media.
