Iowa coalition advocates for charter school growth across the state
The Iowa Coalition for Public Charter Schools has helped facilitate the approval of more than a dozen new public charter schools across the state, advocates for them to lawmakers and continues to support the schools after they’ve opened to students.
This year, coalition Executive Director Mike Huguelet plans to begin coordinating professional development for Iowa charter schools, bringing in experts who can provide ongoing education to teachers to enhance their instructional practices to improve student achievement.
“First and foremost, we exist as an advocacy organization,” said Huguelet, executive director and sole employee of the organization. “Most states still have a lot of loopholes and weak parts in their charter law. In Iowa, we get about 50% less funding” than traditional public schools.
Huguelet became the coalition’s executive director in July 2023 when it was founded. His experience working with charter, private and public schools has led him to believe in the vision of the coalition: to ensure all students in Iowa have access to public education in high-quality schools.
Since the Iowa Coalition for Public Charter Schools launched, Iowa has seen a 400% growth in enrollment into public charter schools. That’s about 1,600 students this year, representing less than 1% of the total public school enrollment in the state, Huguelet said.
Charter schools are tuition-free schools that are publicly funded, but run independently under an approved charter with the state.
In Iowa, charter schools receive per-pupil aid from the state, just like public schools. There are 10 public charter schools in Iowa, with another six approved to come on line. Of those 16 schools, 11 are in Cedar Rapids, Davenport or Des Moines.
Charter schools in Iowa can be opened by local public school boards or by independent founding groups — under legislation signed into law in 2021 — that apply to the Iowa State Board of Education for approval.
In Iowa, charter schools operate with a governing board that is not elected by voters — unlike traditional public schools — under a five-year charter granted by the state board. A charter school must attract students and produce positive results within five years or risk losing its charter.
Recruiting management groups
Huguelet is recruiting charter management organizations to the state to open new schools, and supporting the launch of schools created by Iowans to meet the needs for K-12 education they see in their communities.
Chris Murphy, chief growth and strategy officer for Concept Schools, a nonprofit charter school management company based in Illinois, said Huguelet’s “extraordinary” work is a “testament to his passion for public education.”
Concept Schools plans to open Horizon Science Academy to about 140 K-5th graders this fall in Cedar Rapids. It has yet to announce a location. Horizon Science Academy will be the fourth charter to open in Cedar Rapids.
“He’s a valuable thought partner and ensures communities aren’t overly saturated with one type of charter school or another, creates space for charter schools to collaborate and talk about legislative issues and operational opportunities,” Murphy said of Huguelet.
Murphy said he believes in collaboration between traditional public and charter schools and that schools should work together to serve families and students.
“What has happened I believe is some relationships have turned adversarial. We’re competing for kids in some regards, but at the end of the day, families have to choose what’s best for them,” Murphy said.
Huguelet said there’s a “false narrative” that charter schools have a negative impact on the traditional public school system. He believes it’s an expansion of public school choice, free to any student who wants to attend.
“When people start focusing on the kids and not the dollars,” collaboration between traditional public and charter schools can happen, Huguelet said. Iowa is in its “infancy” when it comes to charter schools, he said.
“I view it fundamentally different from people who have only lived in a system with one lane of public education,” he said.
The National Education Association, however, opposes charter schools because they are privately managed and not held accountable by locally elected school boards and, the association says, divert funding away from traditional public schools. This means traditional public schools with declining enrollment — and subsequently funding — might be forced to close schools.
Neither charter schools nor traditional public schools can claim to be more successful at raising student achievement, the National Education Association says.
Huguelet, however, said data indicates when a charter school opens, it improves student achievement in the surrounding traditional public schools as schools work to compete for students. He cites data from Des Moines Public Schools that shows three of the five schools in the district that improved their ratings on the Iowa School Performance Profile in 2024 are within 3 miles of Horizon Science Academy — a charter that opened in 2023.
Charter schools ‘secret sauce’
Huguelet said unelected school boards are part of the “secret sauce” to charter schools — since they don’t have to worry about re-election, the members can focus on making decisions that are best for kids. Being able to hand-select board members also means the boards can make sure they have experts with diverse skills such as an accountant or a lawyer, he said.
“There’s nothing stopping traditional public schools from reorganizing themselves in a less bureaucratic way,” Huguelet said. “It’s just how America is set up. We love hierarchies and organizational charts and lines of authority. We set that up and don’t see how sometimes that can be a part of the destruction instead of the solution.”
Advocating for state funding
Huguelet also advocates at the Iowa Statehouse for legislation that he says improves operating conditions and increases funding for public charter schools. Proposed bills in the Iowa Legislature this year aim to address some funding differences between traditional public and charter schools.
House File 2713 would require the teacher salary supplement — state-allocated funding for teacher salaries — to follow students to charter schools. The bill would also require traditional public school districts to allow charter school students to participate in sports and extracurricular activities at the traditional public school.
The Urban Education Network of Iowa — which represents Iowa’s largest traditional public school districts — opposes the proposed legislation, saying charter schools pull enrollment away from public schools, further stressing school districts with already declining enrollment, resulting in less funding. The teacher salary supplement should remain with traditional public school districts, but if charter schools do get this funding, they should be subject to the same regulations and only be able to use it for teacher salaries, the group says.
Last year, the state received a five-year $43 million federal grant to support public charter schools in Iowa. Iowa also has an existing $7 million state charter school grant program to support infrastructure costs, which Huguelet helped launch.
Coalition supported first Cedar Rapids charter
Sarah Swayze opened Empowering Excellence Charter School — the first charter school in Cedar Rapids — in fall 2024. Previously, Swayze operated a nonprofit called Empowering Youths of Iowa that provided one-on-one mentoring to students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
Empowering Excellence Charter School is an online credit recovery high school that aims to prepare students for life after graduation. The school’s enrollment is almost 300 students in its second year of operations — twice the size Swayze expected to reach in year five.
Swayze said the Iowa Coalition for Public Charter Schools was pivotal to getting Empowering Excellence approved by the state board and open.
“There’s not a question I can ask (Huguelet) that he doesn’t know the answer to, and if he doesn’t know the answer, he goes seek it out for us,” Swayze said.
Nature-based charter coming to Crescent
A nature-based charter school opening in southwestern Iowa aims to fill a gap left after the community’s only elementary school was closed by the Council Bluffs Community School District three years ago.
The school, named Red Barn Schoolhouse, is being opened by local residents who say they wanted to meet the needs of students and families.
Sharon Oamek, a governing board member for Red Barn Schoolhouse, said the school wouldn’t have happened without the expertise of the Iowa Coalition for Public Charter Schools. The coalition helped Red Barn Schoolhouse with its charter application to the Iowa State Board of Education, which was approved in 2025.
The school plans to open this fall to about 45 K-4th graders. Eventually, the school expects to grow to about 100 students.
Huguelet has connected Red Barn Schoolhouse leaders with state and national resources for charter schools, helping Red Barn create a school from the ground up. This includes a plan for funding, since the school won’t receive per-pupil state aid until after its first school year since state aid runs a year behind, Oamek said.
Oamek said school leaders speak to Huguelet on a monthly basis.
“He’s critical for us moving forward,” she said.
Coalition to expand soon
The coalition’s annual budget is $260,000, which includes Huguelet’s salary, the coalition’s website and a lawyer. So far, the coalition primarily has been funded through grants and individual donations. As more charter schools open in the state, up to 25% of the coalition’s budget will be funded by membership dues, which Huguelet said will be based on each school’s enrollment.
Huguelet hopes to expand the coalition’s one-man operation this year by hiring a director of member success who would work on the school support side of the coalition while Huguelet focuses on advocacy and fundraising.
