Ben Chavis (educator)

Ben Chavis is a former principal and outspoken leader in the education reform movement. His tenure as the principal at American Indian Public Charter School was both successful in raising performance and enrollment and controversial for his methods. He is the author of Crazy Like a Fox; One principal's triumph in the inner city. Chavis featured in the documentary film Flunked.

Chavis is a Lumbee Indian. The eldest of six children, his alcoholic father died while Chavis was young. Chavis grew up in Robeson County, North Carolina. He was offered a track scholarship to attend Oklahoma City University and Pima College and the University of Arizona, on an academic scholarship. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in education. He also worked as a school janitor to help pay for his education. He worked on a master's degree through night classes at Northern Arizona University and continued his education at the University of Arizona earning doctorate degrees in education, philosophy and anthropology.

Chavis is the founder of several businesses including Lumbee Holdings, LLC. The company focuses on purchasing shopping centers, real estate for schools, farming, and ranching, in Arizona, California, and North Carolina.

Chavis became a professor in the ethnic studies department at San Francisco State University in 1988. He was superintendent of schools at an Indian reservation in Fort Apache, Arizona. Then in 2000, he was recruited by Oakland's Native American community to take over the struggling American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland.

Chavis returned to North Carolina to speak on his experiences and Elmer W. Hunt's photographs in 2011.

Chavis currently resides in North Carolina.He received much criticism from the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) for allegedly receiving over $3.8 million in school funds for leasing school facilities, construction and his salary from 2006 -2012 In February 2013, OUSD attempted to revoke the school's charter ; however, the Superior Court of Alameda County ruled in the American Indian Public Charter Schools favor.

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