Congratulations to the Arizona Charter Schools Association

Congratulations to the Arizona Charter Schools Association for hosting a successful state charter schools conference in early November with nearly 1,000 attendees! Arizona has over 540 charter schools (the most in any state). Arizona now has 145,000 students attending charter public schools, a number 10% greater than last year, and now comprising over 14% of the public school students in the state. 60% of Arizona charter schools have a waiting list of at least one grade.

Our National Launch: Honoring Chartering Pioneers in our Nation’s Capitol

I couldn’t have asked for a better start to our national book tour for Zero Chance of Passage:  The Pioneering Charter School Story.  Last week my copublisher, Charter Schools Development Corporation (CSDC), and its board of directors on which I serve, hosted a classy reception and book signing at a beautiful suite overlooking the US Capitol.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jack Abramoff, and Me???

Yes! All of us were presenters at the Legislative Summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) in Chicago last week, and all of us signed our books. I also found Marc Tucker’s presentation Surpassing Shanghai an eye-opening comparison on how public education systems globally compare with ours. The conference was a great chance to network with policymakers and legislative staff from around the country.

Johns Hopkins Conferences – The Origins of Chartering

If we are to have a vibrant system of public education in this country, including strong chartered schools,  we need strong institutions of higher learning committed to making that happen.   That is the case with Johns Hopkins University School of Education in Baltimore.  I was pleased to participate in two conferences at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore last week to talk about the origins of chartering, and how we can shape charter school policies and leadership for the next 20 years.