Michael Block is executive chairman of Basis Educational Ventures and Chairman of BASIS.ed. Together with his wife, Olga Block, Michael has founded more than 20 charter schools across the country.
BASIS.ed manages an ever-growing network of open-enrollment, tuition-free public charter schools in Arizona, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington, D.C. BASIS Charter Schools are part of the network of BASIS Charter Schools, with the first school founded in Tucson, Arizona, in 1998. BASIS schools are among the nation’s best schools by any measure: national rankings, OECD Test for Schools (based on PISA) exams, Advanced Placement® results, National Merit Scholarship Program® honors, earned college merit aid, and college admissions, among many other highly respected standards and honors. BASIS Charter Schools provide a high-quality education to nearly 17,000 students. BASIS schools claimed three of the top five positions on the 2020 U.S. News and World Report ranking of America’s best charter high schools.
Mr. Block earned a BS, MS, and Ph.D., in economics from Stanford University. He served as a senior research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution for six years before enjoying a 25-year career as professor of economics at Arizona State University.