Minnesota Enacts First Charter School Law, Creating Template for Education Privatization

On June 4, 1991, Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson signed the nation’s first charter school law, creating a new category of publicly funded but independently operated schools that would transform American education over the following three decades. The legislation, championed by the Citizens League think tank and progressive educators like Ted Kolderie and Joe Nathan, established a template that would spread to 45 states and enable massive growth in education privatization.

The Minnesota law authorized the creation of up to eight “outcome-based schools” exempt from most state regulations governing public schools. Proponents argued charter schools would serve as “laboratories of innovation” that could experiment with new educational approaches and share successful practices with traditional public schools. The original vision emphasized teacher-led schools with strong connections to communities, operating with public accountability.

However, the model proved easily captured by corporate interests and privatization advocates. The legislation’s core innovation—allowing schools to operate with public funding while avoiding union contracts, certified teacher requirements, and democratic school board oversight—created precisely the structural opportunities that for-profit education management organizations and ideologically-driven operators would later exploit. The “autonomy” that charter proponents celebrated became a mechanism for evading accountability and labor protections.

By 1995, nineteen states had enacted charter laws, often modeled on Minnesota’s template and promoted by the same network of think tanks and advocacy organizations. By 2020, over 7,500 charter schools enrolled more than 3.3 million students, with for-profit operators managing a significant portion. Research consistently showed charter schools performed no better on average than traditional public schools, while creating financial strain on district budgets and often exacerbating segregation.

The Minnesota law’s legacy illustrates how reform ideas can be captured and transformed. What began as a progressive experiment in teacher-led innovation became a vehicle for corporate management companies, religious organizations seeking public funds, and ideologues hostile to public education. The charter movement’s evolution from community-based innovation to corporate privatization demonstrates the importance of structural safeguards—precisely the regulations charter laws were designed to eliminate. Minnesota’s 1991 law created the legal framework; subsequent decades revealed how that framework would be exploited for profit and ideology rather than educational improvement.