Charity Executive Combines Business Prowess and Passion

Robert Boyd’s peripatetic career has led him from serving on the board of a federal savings bank with assets

of $4.5-billion, to starting operations in several states for DonorsChoose, an online site that links donors with teachers asking for as little as $250 for classroom supplies.

A man who seems to thrive on new intellectual challenges, Mr. Boyd has also been a pastor in the United Methodist Church, helped develop the Beale Street Historic District in Memphis, served as a consultant to Pepsi and to Ernst & Young, and raised $4-million for a sports complex while working with needy children in Dallas.

Now his wide-ranging career has brought Mr. Boyd to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, where he became chief operating officer in November. Created in 2005, the group works to expand the number of high-quality charter schools available to children — particularly those from low-income and minority families — who would otherwise be relegated to attending failing public schools of the more traditional ilk.

Nelson Smith, the organization’s president, says that Mr. Boyd’s ease in straddling the nonprofit and for-profit worlds makes him a natural for the job. “Charter schools are both a growing social movement,” says Mr. Smith, “and, in many respects, an industry. And Robert combines a passion for the highest aspirations for kids with a set of terrific business skills that are increasingly necessary for an organization that serves a national movement.”

Just 15 years after the first charter school opened in St. Paul, such schools now enroll more than a million students in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Charter schools receive government money and, under the terms of their charter, are held accountable for meeting certain academic standards. In exchange, they have more leeway than traditional public schools in choosing curricula, hiring employees, and making other decisions. While advocates say that this autonomy leads to improved pedagogy and learning, critics say that studies don’t bear this out.

Immediately before joining the alliance, Mr. Boyd, 51, was executive director of the Heartland region of DonorsChoose. Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Mr. Boyd was charged with starting DonorsChoose operations in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

“DonorsChoose had a fair bit of money to help replenish schools that had been hit hard,” says Mr. Boyd. “The group went instantly from serving 10,000 schools to more than 22,000 schools.” As DonorsChoose continued to expand, Mr. Boyd was ultimately responsible for nine states that stretched from Louisiana to Nebraska.

Now, at the alliance, Mr. Boyd, who will earn $130,000 a year, is overseeing yet another rapid expansion. The group — which has a budget this year of approximately $8-million — currently has only eight employees, but that number will more than double over the next year.

The growth spurt is due in large part to three recent grants totaling $11-million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, and the Walton Family Foundation. The money will also help expand advocacy, communications, and other activities.

In an interview, Mr. Boyd discussed his plans for the organization.

Did the acute needs expressed by teachers via DonorsChoose lead you to become more committed to helping poor children?

It’s tragic the things teachers are asking for. I knew, from my mother being a schoolteacher in the South Bronx, the hundreds of dollars she used to spend every year on materials for her classrooms. And we weren’t wealthy — my father was a cop. It’s tragic to see how little we contribute to education in this country.

My coming to the alliance was a real question for me, because I had other offers, but it provided a great opportunity. I’m a “big tent” kind of person. I’m a big believer in charter education, but I’ll take any kind of education that helps move poor kids along.

What is the most critical issue facing charter schools?

Probably the fact that they get less than 80 percent of the funding of a traditional public school. You’re left scratching your head, asking why — it’s a public school, it’s the same kid, and they’ve just gone around the corner to a charter school. That’s one of the reasons the alliance exists — to try to bring about equity in the funding arena. It’s politics. It’s powerful interests, and charter schools are out of the box. They’re not the norm of public education in this country.

Are all charter schools better than traditional public schools?

Not necessarily. Quality and best practices are big issues; some schools are effective and others aren’t. If a school’s not performing well — whatever type of school it is — then something needs to be done. If the kids aren’t achieving, what’s the point? If it’s a failing charter school, close it.

The alliance is working to help state associations, charter-management organizations, and schools share best practices with their colleagues. What are they doing in New York or Massachusetts or Philadelphia, and how can that help, for example, New Orleans as it tries to rebuild its education system, largely based on a charter model?

What changes in education policy would you hope to see in the new presidential administration?

Equity in funding, first and foremost. That’s critical. A kid seeking a public education at a charter school in a community where a traditional school has failed should be no less entitled to the same amount of money they were previously eligible for.

Also on the agenda: either eliminating or raising the existing caps on the number of charter schools that are authorized in any given area. Almost all the 40 states have caps to some degree; the question is whether the cap is a prohibitive one, and some just are. They set an artificial ceiling, and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

How do you view your role as chief operating officer?

At my first staff meeting, I opened it with a commercial that shows a bunch of cowboys herding cats. I said, this is what I do — I herd cats. My job is to keep the trains running and make sure my colleagues have the resources they need to do their jobs.

So I’ve already spent a lot of time with staff and board members and then synthesized all that down into an operations plan. But I don’t need to be upfront — I’m past that point in my life. I’ll be happy, say, seeing Nelson Smith [the group’s president] interviewed on Nightline and knowing that the team we put in place caused that to happen.

What’s your vision for the alliance’s future?

I believe we ought to be putting ourselves out of business. I’d love to see charter schools become enough of a mainstream practice in this country that you don’t need an alliance advocating on education bills or on the Hill; it’s just assumed.

But the reality is it’s not like that. Unions feel threatened by us, traditional school districts feel threatened and there’s really no reason for it.

We want the same things they want: good pay for teachers, great schools for kids, a better economy as the result of educating kids instead of incarcerating them. And that’s not inconsistent with what any educator wants.