For generations, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have been a catalyst for transformation in K-12 through initiatives, including diversifying teaching pipelines, starting new schools, and establishing programs designed to meet the aspirations of students far away from quality opportunities.
And yet, in many ways, we have not yet realized the full potential for how HBCUs can drive educational opportunities for all K-12 students. At a time when parents across the country are demanding new and better schools for their children, HBCUs represent an under-tapped source of expertise. This is especially relevant for Black families because of the disproportionate impact that unfinished learning has on them and the systemic barriers to high-quality education that this community has historically faced. HBCUs have a unique history, legacy, and record of advancing Black achievement and wellness, which makes them ideal partners in redesigning public education for the 21st century.
HBCUs and their alumni have played powerful roles in K-12 public education, including charter schools. Alumni are leading outstanding charter learning institutions with exceptional student outcomes, and some HBCUs have partnered with charter schools in effective ways including integrating charter schools on their campuses. This arrangement provides students with a unique experience in which they are introduced to the promise and prestige of higher education earlier in their educational journey. And we believe it is merely the start of a partnership that can have a profound difference in the lives of underserved communities.
Charter schools have proven to be a powerful tool for boosting student achievement, especially among low-income families and families of color. Charter schools are public schools, free and open to all students. They currently serve nearly four million students across 7,700 schools in 45 states and the District of Columbia. When permitted to thrive, charter schools offer families a variety of educational options from which to choose the best fit for their child. They are the opposite of one-size-fits-all schooling. Their unique blend of parental choice, school autonomy, personalized learning, and strict accountability for results illuminates the way toward higher-performing schools for all U.S. students, regardless of their zip code. They create a healthy mix of different types of public schools that helps improve all of public education.
What makes public charter schools innovative and nimble is how they are governed and overseen. The key is charter school authorizers — governmentally approved and supervised entities that decide who is qualified to start a charter school and receive public funding. They determine each school’s academic, financial, and operational expectations; oversee school performance; enforce contractual performance and compliance expectations; and decide which schools should be given the privilege of continuing to educate students.
A practical barrier to quality public school options is the shortage of effective governance and oversight provided by charter school authorizers.
When done well, authorizing is a catalyst for expanding access to quality educational opportunities for students, families, and communities, especially those that have been overlooked, undervalued, and ignored.
But when done poorly — due to overregulation, insufficient institutional commitment, micromanagement, sheer incompetence, or inherent conflicts of interest — weak authorizing contributes to educational failure.
Authorizing charter schools is a relatively new way of making transformative change in K-12 governance and oversight. HBCUs as authorizers is a means to a critical end and one HBCUs have been doing since their inception: better educational opportunities for all students.
To speed the pace of school improvement and modernization, America needs more strong charter school authorizers. Given their capacities and expertise, the nation’s HBCUs are natural candidates to assume this role.
NACSA and PPI urge state policymakers to take the following steps to start empowering willing HBCUs to become strong charter school authorizers:
• Query college leaders to determine if there is at least one HBCU interested in becoming a high-quality charter school authorizer (HBCUs can contact state policymakers directly to express interest);
• Examine national best practices on quality authorizing and how other states have structured authoring infrastructures to determine the best fit for your state;
• Determine the scope of HBCU authorizing (e.g. one institution or multiple institutions) and any other limitations (e.g. only HBCUs of a certain size);
• Enact legislation allowing for one or more HBCUs to be authorizers;
• Ensure there is sufficient funding and resources for authorizing functions.
By becoming charter school authorizers, HBCUs can build on their historical legacy of transforming K-12 education in at least four ways:
1. Redesigning Public Education: Overseeing and expanding quality public school options to improve the outcomes of all students.
2. Building on educational legacies: Overseeing high-quality and effective K-12 schools can help HBCUs build on their rich legacy by deepening connections with local communities.
3. Strengthening ties between K-12 and higher education: HBCU authorizers can develop unique partnerships with schools they oversee, providing access to higher education campuses, creating pipelines of new students, opportunities for dual enrollment, mentorship programs between schools and students, and research opportunities between faculty and schools.
4. Creating strong community institutions and wealth: New charter schools create new facilities and jobs, with opportunities for economic growth in communities, such as Black vendors who can provide new charter schools with products and services.
Our country needs stronger educational opportunities that advance the learning of all students, Black students in particular. HBCUs as charter school authorizers is a transformative way of achieving this goal. For HBCUs looking to expand their impact and strengthen their own institutions, becoming a charter school authorizer is an idea whose time has come.
