Charles A. Luke (born 1961) is an American educator, author, nonprofit leader and consultant and one of only a few sitting superintendents to run for a state political office in recent years. Luke has served as a leader in the Texas education and nonprofit arenas for over twenty years. His published writings include political analysis and educational funding.
Luke was born on August 17, 1961 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He attended school in the Tulsa Public School system and in 1979 graduated from Booker T. Washington High School, a magnet school with a specialized curriculum. After high school Luke served as a pastor of two Southern Baptist churches from 1981-1994. Luke attended Texas Tech University, graduating magna cum laude with a BS in Education in 1990. In 1995 he received a master's degree in education administration from that same institution. In 2007 Luke received his doctorate in education administration from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.
While serving as a Texas public school superintendent Luke launched a 2002 primary campaign against strong incumbent Jim Keffer in a bid for the Texas House of Representatives. Running for the seat from District 60 representing Hood, Eastland, Brown, Stephens, Shackleford, and Palo Pinto counties, Luke established himself as a diligent campaigner but lost the election garnering just over 26% of the vote in a three-person race.[1] Luke was also a candidate for the governor’s appointment to the state’s Teacher Retirement System in 2001.[2]
After the election Luke accepted the position of Superintendent of Schools of Buffalo, Texas where he was credited with bringing peace to a district that had been in turmoil. While serving at Buffalo, Luke published his first political article in 2005 entitled "Can Terrorism Alerts Make You Ill?"[3] in the journal Christian Ethics Today. The article explored the psychological effects of governmental terrorist alerts on the overall population through the development of mass socio-genic illness.
A second political article was published in 2006. The article, entitled Democracy in Iraq: Is it Possible? [4] was also published in "Christian Ethics Today" and discussed the possibilities for the Bush administration of establishing a democratic form of government in Iraq. In 2007 Luke published his dissertation entitled "Equity in Texas Public Education Facilities Funding".[5] The dissertation explored levels of equity in Texas state funding for public school facilities through a careful analysis of capital expenditure outlays among the states 1,039 school districts. Luke’s findings indicated that there was poor facilities funding equity and poor wealth neutrality with regard to facilities funding across the distribution of Texas public school districts.
Luke, C. (2008) Servant leadership: Path to organizational health. Christian Ethics Today. 70:3:24