It’s 5:45 a.m. on a Monday morning in the middle of August. The year is 2006 and my mom is rapping on my bedroom door. “Julien! Time to get up Ju, you have school in an hour,” my mom says as I rise out of the bed rolling my eyes.

I have one of the best jobs in the world.

All year long, I work with tens of thousands of schools, organizations, and individuals who are making a real difference in the lives of children by opening the doors of opportunity in education. My goal is to help raise even greater awareness of these extraordinary efforts.

We are happy to share news of our 2018 Champions for Charters—an honor that dates back to 2006, when the National Alliance first began spotlighting local, state, and federal elected officials who are leading the charge to give parents and students better public school opportunities. If educational equity and opportunity have any meaning, public school options must include charter schools.

The 2017 National Teacher of the Year—the nation’s first charter school teacher to earn the honor—Sydney Chaffee reflects on her year traveling the country. The National Alliance looks forward to welcoming Sydney at the National Charter School Conference this summer in Austin, Texas—and its not too late to join us!

Lagra Newman, Founder and Head of School, of Purpose Preparatory Academy, one of the highest performing elementary schools in Tennessee. Purpose Prep, a public, non-selective charter school, educates children predominately within the North Nashville community and focuses on strong literacy acquisition. A staunch advocate for underserved communities, Ms. Newman is deeply committed to ensuring...

More than 50 years ago, Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy challenged Americans to dive deep into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Initially inspired by the “space race” with the USSR (Modern-day Russia), STEM developed into a critical component of contemporary American education. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stunned the world on...

Despite all the current rhetoric, it is important to remember that parents across the county are overwhelmingly supportive of public school choice. In fact, regardless of race/ethnicity, income, party affiliation, or geography – more than 70 percent of parents support public school choice. In 2017-18, more than 7,000 charter schools serve nearly 3.2 million students in 43 states, the District...

My name is Pia Gentapanan and I am a sophomore at Environmental Charter High School (ECHS). I first heard about ECHS from the teachers at my middle school. My family and I chose to attend because of all the great things we’d heard, such as the college preparatory focus, academic rigor and the very small, yet comfortable learning environment; I can vouch for that. Along with working hard to...

A seemingly overwhelming amount of information inundates 21st century children daily. Classical education, an increasingly popular education model, equips children with reasoning, informal and formal logic, and rhetoric to help them process the surplus of information and arguments. This model dates to antiquity but fell out of fashion over the last century. Thanks to an educational renaissance...

Alabama is fairly new to the charter school sector but it is making tremendous strides when it comes to school choice. In 2015 Alabama became the 42nd state to pass a charter school law. Rural students have unique needs that historically, public schools, both traditional and charter, have been criticized for not meeting. However, this fall, the first rural charter school will be opening in...