Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
Recent media articles don’t accurately reflect Minnesota’s chartered public school sector or the thousands of dedicated leaders and teachers I know and work with (“Charter experiment failing kids,” special section, Sept. 15).
At the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools, we agree that there are challenges in the public education sector. We believe chartered public schools should be held accountable, transparent and held to high standards. Our charter law, the first in the nation, has evolved over time to increase accountability while maintaining the autonomy to allow chartered public schools to innovate and explore exciting ways to serve students’ and their families’ unique interests and personalized learning needs. Parents of more than 68,000 students choose to send their students to attend tuition-free charter schools, which are open to all students regardless of ability or need. Charters are governed jointly by licensed teachers, parents and community members, and are subject to the same legal requirements as traditional public schools regarding state testing, teacher licensing and financial reporting.
There are many successes within our sector: Six of Minnesota’s Top 10 public schools are charters, and in 2024, 122 of the state’s 180 charter schools earned the Minnesota Department of Education School Finance Award for sound fiscal management.
However, like all public schools across Minnesota, some individual charters face challenges in areas such as finances, academics or governance. The charter sector has proactively addressed these issues by advocating for laws that increase accountability and transparency. In the last two legislative sessions, we passed several bipartisan bills to address these challenges, and our focus now is on implementing these important reforms.
For instance, in the last session we passed new bipartisan laws that enhance training requirements for board members and school administrators. These new laws strengthen and expedite board training requirements on financial management, governance best practices, and legal obligations. The laws also require boards to conduct annual performance assessments and develop robust improvement plans. To ensure that school directors are prepared, leaders now must have a four-year degree and complete significant annual training on essential topics like instruction/assessment, financial management and state/federal law.
Additionally, these laws enhance transparency and more thoroughly address conflict of interest issues and strengthen public accountability/reporting requirements for companies working with charter schools.