Thankfulness, Struggle, and the Future of Charter Schools - CharterFolk Chat with Howard Fuller #3

In this powerful Thanksgiving week conversation, education reform pioneer Dr. Howard Fuller joins Jed Wallace to discuss the critical challenges facing the charter school movement—and why we can't take its future for granted.

Dr. Fuller delivers an urgent message: "No public policy is permanent." Drawing parallels to Roe v. Wade, he warns that charter school laws could be eliminated through political change, regardless of their merits. This isn't just about policy—it's about self-determination, parent choice, and the future of educational freedom.

🔑 KEY THEMES:
• Why the charter movement may be taking its existence for granted
• The lost balance between freedom and accountability
• How proving we're "public" led us to adopt the system we tried to escape
• The price of social change and what it demands from leaders
• Milwaukee's funding battles and the fight for educational equity
• Why studying history (from Frederick Douglass to Du Bois) matters for today's struggles

💬 POWERFUL QUOTES:
"We have to remain committed to purpose, not to the institutional arrangement that gets us to purpose."

"Elections have consequences. Those elections can change any existing policy, not necessarily based on the merits of it, but based on the politics of it."

"If you decide to wage struggle, you have to make the individual decision: What price are you willing to pay?"

"Without struggle, no progress." - Frederick Douglass

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction and Thanksgiving frame
02:01 Thankfulness with purpose
04:17 Why charter laws aren't permanent (the Roe v Wade parallel)
06:30 Frantz Fanon and generational mission
08:10 Freedom vs accountability: the lost balance
12:56 Charter schools as Greek tragedy
16:48 Milwaukee's educational ecosystem crisis
23:31 Technology, culture, and institutional change
29:26 Avoiding false dichotomies
34:17 Brandon Brown and the personal toll of advocacy
38:38 "Without struggle, no progress"
40:02 What price are you willing to pay?
48:23 The meaning of sacrifice and service
52:16 History as a living tool for today
55:18 Black abolitionists and forgotten history
57:13 Closing thoughts

👥 ABOUT THE GUESTS:
Dr. Howard Fuller is a distinguished professor of education and founder of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University. Former superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, he's a lifelong advocate for educational choice, parent empowerment, and social justice. His book "No Struggle, No Progress" captures his philosophy of educational reform.

Jed Wallace is the host of Charterfolk Chat and a leading voice in charter school advocacy.

🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED:
• "Wretched of the Earth" by Frantz Fanon
• "Force and Freedom" by Kellie Jones
• "Black Reconstruction" by W.E.B. Du Bois
• "Educational Blacks in the South, 1867 to 1935" by Jim Anderson
• Ted Kolderie's work on chartering and institutional change
• Brandon Brown's Charterfolk Chat episode on funding equity

📚 RELATED TOPICS:
#CharterSchools #EducationReform #ParentChoice #SchoolChoice #EducationalEquity #HowardFuller #Milwaukee #PublicEducation #SocialJustice #EducationPolicy #CharterSchoolMovement #EducationalFreedom #Thanksgiving #Leadership #SocialChange

This conversation was recorded in November 2025 and released during Thanksgiving week—a time for gratitude, but also for recognizing that the work of educational transformation is never finished.

#Charterfolk #CharterfolkChat #EducationLeadership