To me, the key finding in the recent report by Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), A Tale of Two Systems:  Education Reform in Washington D.C., is not that charter schools are outperforming district schools in D.C. What is important is the WHY.

The findings of last week’s report released by Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), A Tale of Two Systems: Education Reform in Washington D.C., will resonate far beyond D.C. The report compared the results of two systems: the charter public school system serving 44% of D.C.’s public school students, and the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) system.

When David Osborne and the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) release a study on education reform, it is not just another study. It creates impact. Osborne, the author of Reinventing Government, is now Director of PPI’s project on Reinventing America’s Schools. Both of them played key pioneering roles in the national rise of charters in the early 1990s, as documented in my book, Zero Chance of Passage.

This month ten new charter public schools opened in Minnesota for the 2015-16 school year, all in the Twin Cities area or Rochester, MN. That brings the total number of charter public schools in Minnesota to 165 as of September 2015.

There is a robust policy debate in Minnesota about preschool education: should we focus public funding on scholarships for at-risk three- and four-year-olds to attend high quality preschool programs, or should we provide universal preschool for all 4-year-olds?

We know that early education brings big benefits for children later in life. So why are there so many barriers to collaboration between chartering and preschool?

Could chartering be a model for providing early education programs? It is already happening.

There are many reasons why Friendship Academy of the Arts (FAA), a charter public school in south Minneapolis, is this year’s top Minneapolis Star Tribune’s “Beating the Odds” school in the Twin Cities. With a student body of over 97% on free and reduced lunch, they topped all metropolitan schools with at least 85% poverty level in both reading proficiency (83.3%) and math proficiency (90.3%).

Friendship Academy of Fine Arts, a charter public school in south Minneapolis, began in 2001 with 37 students. Four years ago their authorizer, Minneapolis Public Schools, was recommending closure based on poor academic test results.

What I appreciate about the 47 years of the PDK/Gallup Poll is how it tracks changes over time in how Americans view K-12 public education. The 2015 poll is filled with valuable information.

The results are in. The headlines of the 2015 PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward Public Schools are that Americans don’t like standardized testing and that lack of financial support is noted as the biggest problem facing local schools.

What is more important than K-12 education to prepare students for jobs that don’t exist, using technologies not yet created, to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet? What is more important than K-12 education for America to compete in the global marketplace?

Have you noticed that K-12 education has been off the radar during the recent roll-out of nearly 20 presidential candidates in both parties? What a loss for America! Many candidates are governors who have taken leading roles in education policy in their states. Why isn’t American demanding more on this topic?

There is a reason why Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, has won numerous awards for his work in fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. This Harvard Law School graduate (and author of the New York Times bestseller Just Mercy) doesn’t give up.

For me, the most moving keynote speaker of the National Charter Schools Conference last month was not a charter leader—not even a traditional educator. He is Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama.

The show choir from Voyager Academy High School in Durham rocked the house at the recent conference of the North Carolina Public Charter Schools Association. Their medley from the Broadway play Hairspray included dance, amazing vocals, and great choreography (photo below). That’s not just my opinion—they are the 2015 North Carolina Show Choir Champions from a state competition hosted by William Peace University. What talented young adults!

Congratulations to the North Carolina Public Charter Schools Association team, led by former State Senator and now Executive Director Eddie Goodall, on a successful, well-attended state charter schools conference July 19-21 in Durham, North Carolina! This week begins the 20th anniversary year of the signing of the North Carolina charter school law passed in 1996. I was delighted to serve as keynote speaker for the conference, sharing the pioneering charter school story and dispelling the myths of chartering. The Durham Herald Sun captured some of my comments here.

I was intrigued by a point that Nina Rees, CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, made in her address to the recent National Charter Schools Conference. With one million student names on charter school waiting lists, “we aren’t growing or diversifying fast enough,” she said. “There are too many students we are still not able to reach or serve.”

Last month I attended my second National Charter Schools Conference in New Orleans. When I attended the first time in 2008, just three years after Hurricane Katrina, my sister and I toured the Lower Ninth Ward. Three years after the massive storm, it was heart-breaking to see the many vacant lots where houses and schools once stood. The rebuild was only beginning.

Dr. Jim Goenner’s sessions on “Greatness” are always highly-rated at charter schools conferences. At last month’s National Charter Schools Conference, he focused on greatness in authorizer leadership—a key to chartering success! Dr. Goenner, from the National Charter Schools Institute, takes authorizing to a new level that I hope more authorizers will follow.