By Jim Goenner, Ph.D.In partnership with Bluum | January 2026 Public education is not a program. It’s a civic infrastructure. When it works, it transforms lives, supports families, encourages educators, strengthens communities, and makes Idaho a great place to live, work, and play. Since its founding in 1890, Idaho has long valued freedom and limited…
Movements change what’s possible. Sectors protect what is. By Jim Goenner, Ph.D.Published in CharterFolk | November 2025 I’m grateful to be part of the charter schools movement. We are a group of spirited, strong-willed, opinionated mavericks. We don’t think alike, act alike, or look alike. But we are united by something deeper: a conviction that every child deserves a great education, and the “one best system” is standing in the way…
About Season 2 Episode 5: Chartering the Frontier Every region has its trailblazers. In the early 1990s, California and Colorado became unlikely frontiers for the charter school movement. Their laws didn’t pass by chance. They were the product of bold leadership, creative coalition-building, and relentless persistence. California’s story is one of speed, innovation, and unlikely…
About Season 2 Episode 4: Charters Go National Great ideas rarely succeed on vision alone. They need champions. They need strategy. They need leaders willing to ask bold questions and act when the window opens. That’s exactly what happened when the chartering idea began to move from a spark in Minnesota to a national movement….
About Season 2 Episode 3: The First Law Behind every bold law is a bolder story. In this episode of Bold by Choice, we step into the moment that changed everything—the birth of the first charter school law. It wasn’t a straight path. It wasn’t inevitable. And it certainly wasn’t easy. But it’s in the…
About Season 2, Episode 2: Ideas to Action “You can’t expect new results from old designs.” Those words capture the essence of Ted Kolderie’s legacy—and the heart of this episode of Bold by Choice Podcast. Kolderie isn’t just another policy thinker. He is a systems designer, a civic leader who challenged us to stop patching…
About Season 2, Episode 1: The Idea Every movement has a beginning. For chartering, it did not start with national policy, but with a bold idea scribbled on paper, shared in speeches, debated in think tanks, and carried into law by people who believed public education could be more than what it was. In this first episode of…
How Chartering Can Build a Better Future for Students, Educators, and Communities A Tribute to Ted Kolderie at 95 By Jim Goenner, Ph.D. Everything Becomes Obsolete Everything that stops growing and adapting eventually becomes obsolete. Not because it fails, but because the world keeps changing. The horse did not fail; the car made it unnecessary. Candles did…
The Charter Network is a professional community for charter school authorizers, boards, schools, and support organizations. Engage with experts, network with peers, access specialized trainings, tools, resources and more.
The Founders Library’s mission is to capture the history of the charter schools movement for future generations to enjoy and learn from. From the original founders to the present day leaders, history matters!
View this clip on the National Charter Schools Founders Library: https://charterlibrary.org/library/former-governor-of-ny-george-e-pataki-excerpt-negotiating-the-ny-charter-school-bill-into-law/ Watch the full interview of Governor Pataki: https://charterlibrary.org/library/interview-of-former-governor-of-ny-george-e-pataki/
Watch the full oral history of Jim Barrett here: https://charterlibrary.org/library/interview-of-jim-barrett/
More from Ember Reichgott Junge: https://charterlibrary.org/library/ember-reichgott-junge-bio/
More from Ember Reichgott Junge: https://charterlibrary.org/library/ember-reichgott-junge-bio/
More from Ember Reichgott Junge: https://charterlibrary.org/library/ember-reichgott-junge-bio/
Watch the full oral history of Harold J. Brubaker here: https://charterlibrary.org/library/interview-of-harold-brubaker/
By Jim Goenner, Ph.D.In partnership with Bluum | January 2026 Public education is not a program. It’s a civic infrastructure. When it works, it transforms lives, supports families, encourages educators, strengthens communities, and makes Idaho a great place to live, work, and play. Since its founding in 1890, Idaho has long valued freedom and limited…
Movements change what’s possible. Sectors protect what is. By Jim Goenner, Ph.D.Published in CharterFolk | November 2025 I’m grateful to be part of the charter schools movement. We are a group of spirited, strong-willed, opinionated mavericks. We don’t think alike, act alike, or look alike. But we are united by something deeper: a conviction that every child deserves a great education, and the “one best system” is standing in the way…
About Season 2 Episode 5: Chartering the Frontier Every region has its trailblazers. In the early 1990s, California and Colorado became unlikely frontiers for the charter school movement. Their laws didn’t pass by chance. They were the product of bold leadership, creative coalition-building, and relentless persistence. California’s story is one of speed, innovation, and unlikely…
About Season 2 Episode 4: Charters Go National Great ideas rarely succeed on vision alone. They need champions. They need strategy. They need leaders willing to ask bold questions and act when the window opens. That’s exactly what happened when the chartering idea began to move from a spark in Minnesota to a national movement….
About Season 2 Episode 3: The First Law Behind every bold law is a bolder story. In this episode of Bold by Choice, we step into the moment that changed everything—the birth of the first charter school law. It wasn’t a straight path. It wasn’t inevitable. And it certainly wasn’t easy. But it’s in the…
About Season 2, Episode 2: Ideas to Action “You can’t expect new results from old designs.” Those words capture the essence of Ted Kolderie’s legacy—and the heart of this episode of Bold by Choice Podcast. Kolderie isn’t just another policy thinker. He is a systems designer, a civic leader who challenged us to stop patching…
About Season 2, Episode 1: The Idea Every movement has a beginning. For chartering, it did not start with national policy, but with a bold idea scribbled on paper, shared in speeches, debated in think tanks, and carried into law by people who believed public education could be more than what it was. In this first episode of…
How Chartering Can Build a Better Future for Students, Educators, and Communities A Tribute to Ted Kolderie at 95 By Jim Goenner, Ph.D. Everything Becomes Obsolete Everything that stops growing and adapting eventually becomes obsolete. Not because it fails, but because the world keeps changing. The horse did not fail; the car made it unnecessary. Candles did…
The Charter Network is a professional community for charter school authorizers, boards, schools, and support organizations. Engage with experts, network with peers, access specialized trainings, tools, resources and more.
The Founders Library’s mission is to capture the history of the charter schools movement for future generations to enjoy and learn from. From the original founders to the present day leaders, history matters!
View this clip on the National Charter Schools Founders Library: https://charterlibrary.org/library/former-governor-of-ny-george-e-pataki-excerpt-negotiating-the-ny-charter-school-bill-into-law/ Watch the full interview of Governor Pataki: https://charterlibrary.org/library/interview-of-former-governor-of-ny-george-e-pataki/
Watch the full oral history of Jim Barrett here: https://charterlibrary.org/library/interview-of-jim-barrett/
More from Ember Reichgott Junge: https://charterlibrary.org/library/ember-reichgott-junge-bio/
More from Ember Reichgott Junge: https://charterlibrary.org/library/ember-reichgott-junge-bio/
More from Ember Reichgott Junge: https://charterlibrary.org/library/ember-reichgott-junge-bio/
Watch the full oral history of Harold J. Brubaker here: https://charterlibrary.org/library/interview-of-harold-brubaker/
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