Freda Deskin, ASTEC Charter Schools | Education Insider Magazine | Charter School of the YearFreda Deskin, Founder and CEO
Dr. Freda Deskin-Lewis is an award-winning educator, founder and CEO of ASTEC Charter Schools. With more than four decades in education, she has championed STEM learning, educational innovation and student opportunity, earning recognition including membership in the Oklahoma Educators Hall of Fame and numerous other honors.

Charter schools are publicly funded K–12 schools that operate with greater autonomy than traditional district schools in exchange for stronger accountability for results. Born from a push for innovation and choice, charters aim to offer specialized curricula, flexible staffing models and new approaches to instruction while remaining free and open to the public.

Charter schools now serve millions of students and continue to expand in many states. Recent national analyses estimate charter enrollment at roughly around four million students about seven to eight percent of all public-school students and show nearly 7,800 charter schools in operation in the last multi-year studies. Research and national reports also indicate that charter outcomes vary widely by state, network and model and rigorous studies including randomized lottery evaluations find both notable successes and mixed results depending on context.


Many families are drawn to charters for focused academic programs, extended school days or years, themed curricula like STEM, arts, language immersion, smaller-school cultures and an emphasis on college and career pathways. Charters can respond more quickly to local needs, experimenting with schedules, teacher leadership structures and targeted support for historically underserved students.

  • The most promising path forward is one that balances innovation and parental choice with strong oversight, transparency and equitable enrollment, ensuring charter schools create meaningful opportunities for students in every community.

Charter schools can drive innovation in instruction and school design, offer specialized programming not available locally and create new high-quality options in neighborhoods with limited choices. Research shows some charter sectors produce meaningful gains in student learning, higher graduation rates and improved nonacademic outcomes such as attendance, discipline, college enrollment for certain student groups. Charters can also create competitive pressure that helps nearby district schools improve.

When well-authorized and well-supported, charter schools expand meaningful public-school options and incubate practices that can benefit whole districts. The most promising path forward is one that balances innovation and parental choice with strong oversight, transparency and equitable enrollment, ensuring charter schools create meaningful opportunities for students in every community.