Cascade Policy Institute founder Steve Buckstein retires after nearly 28 years
Cascade Policy Institute’s founder and senior policy analyst Steve Buckstein retired November 30.
In January 1991, Buckstein and two friends, David Gore and Bill Udy, incorporated Cascade Policy Institute as Oregon’s free-market think tank and became the first three board members. Cascade’s mission was (and still is) a simple one: promoting public policies fostering individual liberty, personal responsibility, and economic opportunity.
One of Buckstein’s signature moments came when he co-wrote the Oregon Charter School Handbook, which served as the intellectual basis for charter school legislative proposals in 1995, 1997, and 1999. The third time proved to be the charm, and Governor John Kitzhaber signed the law enabling charter schools in the summer of 1999. Today, there are more than 125 charter schools in Oregon.
Having led Cascade as president since 1991, Buckstein returned to full-time policy work in 2004 as Cascade’s senior policy analyst. John A. Charles, Jr. succeeded Buckstein as president and chief executive officer.
For the last 14 years, Buckstein has been Oregon’s leading full-time thinker, speaker, and writer on the topic of individual liberty.
In honor of his work, he received the Roe Award in 2001 from the State Policy Network.
The Board of Directors and the staff of Cascade Policy Institute thank Buckstein for decades of vision and thought-leadership in the freedom movement.
