In 1991, Minnesota launched an initative designed to unleash education from the conventions that limited educational achievement, choice and innovation. The initiative created "public charter schools" - independent public schools focused on improving academic achievement and creating new, different and innovative learning environments; teaching methodologies; assessments; accountability systems; and professional development opportunities for teachers.

Today, forty states and the District of Columbia and several foreign countries are part of the charter school movement. In the United States alone there are over 4,000 schools that enroll over one million young people.