December 4, 2024, Mount Pleasant, MI – The National Charter Schools Founders Library, a digital collection created to preserve chartering’s history and inspire future leaders, today unveiled a new collection of videos and other artifacts recording and honoring the life and legacy of Linda Brown.
A 2008 inductee in the National Charter Schools Hall of Fame, Linda was an original trailblazer of the chartering movement and mentor to countless charter founders, innovators, and barrier busters of the last 35 years. She founded the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center and the groundbreaking Boston-based national nonprofit Building Excellent Schools (BES). She believed in the power of great leaders and high-performing charter public schools as the key to unlocking radically better educational options for families. Linda died in her Cambridge, Massachusetts home just over one year ago on Christmas Day 2023, at the age of 81.
“History books may most remember Linda for founding Building Excellent Schools (BES). For those lucky enough to work alongside and learn from her, she’ll be remembered for being in the business of changing people’s lives,” said James N. Goenner, Ph.D., President and CEO of National Charter Schools Institute, which created and hosts the Library. “Because of Linda’s persistence and generosity of leadership, there are great charter schools with strong leaders all over the country, transforming the lives of our most underserved students.”
“Linda is one of the most important people in the past, present, and future of chartering. And her work will live on in the educators she’s inspired and the students whose lives she touched so deeply,” Goenner continued. “It’s safe to say that the chartering story would be radically different if Linda had not chosen to do what she did all these years, with passion, love, and tremendous intelligence and insight.”
The Founders Library now includes a video tribute honoring Linda, featuring charter education luminaries Jim Peyser, Chantel Wright, Lester Long, Mia Howard, and Doug Lemov who shared her impact on their lives and work.
“Her spirit was intense. Her will was fierce and her heart was huge,” Sue Walsh, former fellowship director and chief academic officer of BES, says in the video. “For Linda, the point of schools was student achievement. She knew what was possible and she never let go.”
The Founders Library also captures testimonials from other BES alums, such as Roblin Webb of Freedom Prep Academy in Memphis, Shara Hedge of Alpha Public Schools in San Jose, Sarah Tantillo of the New Jersey Charter Resource Center, and Dr. Howard Fuller.
Linda was relentlessly committed to mentoring the next generation of strong school leaders, ensuring families could choose the best learning environment for their kids, and creating high-achieving schools where underserved students had everything they needed to succeed. Her vision has profoundly improved the lives of tens of thousands of children.
“Linda embodied the spirit behind charter schools,” said former Minnesota State Senator Ember Reichgott Junge, sponsor of the nation’s first charter schools law and Library co-founder. “She changed the way we think about what is possible. There was no one quite like her. Our collection not only brings light to her legacy but is also an inspiration to emerging charter leaders to continue her work for their own students.”
To further commemorate Linda’s legacy, the Institute donated $1,000 to the Linda Brown Legacy Fund. The Fund was established to honor and continue Linda’s extraordinary contributions to public education. The Fund will award annual grants to schools that embody her vision of excellence and urgency; those schools will disburse awards directly to students to defray some of the out-of-pocket costs that can derail students on the road to and through college. So far, six schools have been recipients of the Fund.
About the National Charter Schools Founders Library
The Founders Library was launched in 2017 by the National Charter Schools Institute to gather and preserve chartering’s origin and growth story and to inspire future generations of educators, policymakers, advocates and families. With oral histories, documents and other artifacts from across the country, the Library provides a trusted narrative of the most consequential education reform in our nation’s history. Follow us: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram. Donate here.
