Service > Charter Schools

In 2004-2005, I helped a group of local citizens successfully apply for a K-10 public school charter - the first and only charter school in Watauga County, North Carolina. I served as a founding board member and helped the school solidify its plan for successful opening and operation.  Click here to view the final charter application for Two Rivers Community School.

I have been interested in Charter schools since the beginning of the charter school movement.  My interest is two-fold: (1) to encourage any type of innovation and choice in American Public Schooling, and (2) to ensure that those involved (and, for that matter, those opposed) have honest, straight-forward information with which to make their individual judgments regarding the worth and value of charter public schools.  To this end, in 2002, I wrote another brief - entitled "Charters Make Sense" - for my students and colleagues in response to a critical statement published by the Common Sense Foundation.

Before that, I advised a group of parents as they launched a new charter school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania named "Lehigh Valley Academy."  I helped them with curricular, leadership, and policy planning.  In 2000, I wrote an op-ed piece in the local paper, The Morning Call, debunking commonly-held misunderstandings about the role of charter schools in public education locally, and nationally.