BIG STORY: Lawmakers plan to revise state charter school law

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  | Look for a bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers next year to make a bold effort to revise the state’s 25-year-old law regulating almost 60 charter schools that dot the state.  More than 44,000 S.C. students attend the publicly funded schools that operate independently of county school boards.

“No one has been regulating them since the original regs came out,” said state Rep. Terry Alexander, a Florence Democrat who was a member of a special ad hoc House committee that probed issues at charter schools in 2019.  It issued a sweeping report in January 2020 that suggested myriad changes to the law, but the coronavirus pandemic put improvement efforts on hold.

This week, the Legislative Audit Council issued a 92-page audit of the S.C. Public Charter School District, which oversees 33 charter schools.  The state’s other authorizer of charter schools, The Charter Institute at Erskine, sponsors 26 charter schools.

“I am not shocked at all about the findings [in the audit],” Alexander said.  “We kind of saw that during our ad hoc committee meetings. No real oversight has been given. That’s why this ad hoc committee came into being.”

State Rep. Raye Felder, a York County Republican who co-chaired the ad hoc House committee, said some charter schools excel, while others have challenges — just like with traditional public schools.  

“I anticipate changes to charter school legislation that was created over 20 years ago to include provisions not only highlighted in the [House] report but also shared by administration and parents over the course of the special committee that reviewed the charter school legislation,” she told Statehouse Report

Charleston Republican Rep. Lin Bennett echoed her colleagues: “Changes are needed. Not just to address these concerns, but to also bring the law up-to-date. This is something we hope to do over the summer and fall and introduce when we return to session in January.”

Accountability is a big issue

According to the Charter Institute at Erskine, “The core of the charter school model is the belief that public schools should be held accountable for student learning. In exchange for this accountability, school leaders should be given freedom to do whatever it takes to help students achieve and should share what works with the broader public school system so that all students benefit.”

But much more accountability is precisely what’s needed, according to the new audit.  In particular, it highlighted “authorizer shopping,” meaning that underperforming charter schools in one charter district might transfer to another overseer district to avoid accountability.  According to the audit, that became an issue in 2017 when “four underperforming schools transferred from the [Public Charter School] District to the Charter Institute at Erskine over the objections of the district’s board of trustees.

“This presents a challenge to accountability efforts and overall charter school quality,” this week’s audit said.

Sherry East, president of the S.C. Education Association, said the audit findings made her angry because while public charter schools have a place in the educational mix offered by the state, they need to be held to the same standards as public schools.

“Because there are two authorizers for the charter programs, this allows for inconsistency and a lack of transparency,” she said. “The systemic lack of transparency and accountability in several facets of the report leave much to be desired. To honor, rather than undermine, the commitment of educators and staff, as well as the families served, it is incumbent upon the Public Charter School District to operate with less opacity and a demonstration of integrity, including monitoring charter school boards as required by S.C. Code.”

In August of 2020, the two districts signed a three-year memorandum of understanding to suspend school transfers until 2023.  By then, lawmakers say they hope to revise the charter school law to deal with two dozen years of issues.

Clarity, consistency, financial, monitoring and website issues

Other issues identified in the audit include lack of clarity of the law closing underperforming schools, inconsistent accountability measures between schools and apart from industry standard, as well as improper documentation.  The audit also said the public charter district needed to better monitor local charter boards.

The audit also highlighted the need for the district to have administrative fee policies and to publicize its administrative costs.  It also found several website inadequacies, including lack of all legally required information and annual reports, old employee listings, and problems with board minutes, functionality and design.

The House ad hoc committee’s report included other issues for the revision of the charter school law, including better transparency, improved fiscal management, better communication and coordination between charter schools and the state Education Department and better performance

“The legislature has taken measures to hold traditional school districts and locally elected public school boards accountable,” East said.  “The legislature should clarify the role of the Public Charter District, enforce and hold them accountable for current codes and should revisit what may be necessary to ensure that the Public Charter District is held accountable for providing a high-quality education and operating with integrating in the same way a traditional public school would be.”

State Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, added that he’s heard criticisms of the Public Charter School District (SCPCD) for years.  

“For a while, it seemed that the SCPCD became more interested in nitpicking than in providing positive leadership,” he said today.  “The success of Erskine as an authorizer helped highlight some of the deficiencies at the SCPCD.  The LAC audit verified some of those deficiencies.  

Grooms said more competition due to two new authorizers would drive more improvements.

“With Limestone and Coastal Carolina coming online as additional charter authorizers, there will soon be even more comparative data that can be used to help drive improvement at the SCPCD,” he said.  “The growth in charter school enrollment speaks to the success of the charter school movement.  Charter authorizers have a responsibility to help their charters be successful and to shut them down when they fail their students.”

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