2024 Charter School Pioneer - Jon Schroeder

Now in retirement, Jon Schroeder is a Senior Associate with Education|Evolving (E|E), having been associated with E|E and previous joint ventures of the non-profit Center for Policy Design and Hamline University from 1996-2014.  From 1996 to 2004, Jon was a co-founder and Director of Charter Friends National Network (CFNN), which helped start and linked more than 75 state-level charter school leadership organizations and represented charter school interests in Congress and with the U.S. Department of Education and state and nation media.  In 1980, CFNN founded the National Charter School Conference and National Charter Schools Week.

During 2003 and 2004, Jon staffed CFNN’s transition to the National Alliance for Charter Public Schools and, from 2004 to 2008, served on the Alliance’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee and co-chaired its Policy Committee.  Previously, Jon played a major role in creating the Federal Charter School Program and the Corporation for National and Community Service (including Learn and Serve America and AmeriCorps) during his ten years in several leadership positions on the staff of former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger (1984-1994). 

Earlier in his career, Jon was Communications Director for the Minnesota Constitutional Study Commission (1972), a Research Associate for the Citizens League (1972-1977), Publisher and Editor of the Grant County Herald in Elbow Lake (1977-1984) and Vice President for Public Affairs and Communications for what is now Scholarship America, best known for its Dollars for Scholars program.

Jon has also served on and/or chaired the boards of a number of non-profit organizations including the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools, EdVisions Schools, People for PSEO and the National Youth Leadership Council.  He was appointed to state commissions on education policy and service learning by Governors Al Quie, Rudy Perpich and Arne Carlson.  And, in 1995-96, he chaired a Citizens League committee on K-12 education that advised the Carlson Administration, then facing a serious imbalance in the state’s budget.  In 2012, Jon’s national leadership on charter schools and education policy was recognized through his induction into the National Charter School Hall of Fame.  A native of Elbow Lake, he is a first-generation college student, earning a BA degree in Political Science from Macalester College in 1972.