Rural SC HBCU registers to regulate charter schools as legislative crackdown looms

A third private South Carolina college has registered to sponsor charter schools in the Palmetto State.

Voorhees University , a small historically Black college in rural Bamberg County, last month notified the state Department of Education it would begin authorizing charter schools, joining Erskine and Limestone colleges, which together oversee 36 charter schools that serve a combined 28,000 students.

The move comes as state lawmakers are contemplating a crackdown on authorizers amid growing concerns about the operations of the largely self-regulated entities that oversee many of South Carolina’s charter schools.

Charter schools are privately-run public schools that are exempt from certain regulations to encourage innovation. Funded by taxpayers, they operate under a contract, or charter, with an authorizing agent that oversees their operations and ensures their compliance with the law.

Voorhees provost Angela Peters, who is leading the university’s effort, said the college was drawn to charter school authorizing because it aligns with its mission to provide a quality education to all students, particularly those from underserved communities.

“It was just a natural progression for us,” said Peters, a former charter school co-founder and board chair. “As an authorizing agent, we will be able to provide access to the college campus, we will be able to provide opportunities for dual enrollment and we’re looking forward to strengthening our partnerships between K-12 and college education.”

As an authorizer, Voorhees would be responsible for approving new charter schools, monitoring their performance and taking corrective action against those that fail to live up to their commitments. In return, the authorizer would be entitled to fund its operations using a fraction of the tax dollars its sponsor schools receive from the state.

In South Carolina, charter school authorizers can be local school districts, the statewide Public Charter School District or any college or university that registers with the state Department of Education.

The role of college and university authorizers, in particular, has come under increased scrutiny this year amid questions about self-dealing and financial mismanagement raised in reporting by The State Media Co .

In response to the newspaper’s reporting, state lawmakers in May requested two separate audits of South Carolina’s largest authorizer, the Charter Institute at Erskine , to determine whether its leaders mishandled state funds or violated the law.

A group of House lawmakers led by education committee Chair Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, specifically asked the Legislative Audit Council to probe claims the Erskine institute had entered into improper financial relationships with for-profit management companies that operate many of the schools it oversees.

One such company, Reason & Republic , which is run by an Erskine institute co-founder, was later revealed in court filings to have been co-owned by Erskine College .

In addition to requesting investigations, legislators also inserted several limited one-year measures in the state budget intended to provide more accountability for authorizers, while acknowledging that additional reform is needed.

Retiring state Sen. Nikki Setzler, D-Lexington, a vocal critic of college and university authorizers, earlier this year implored lawmakers to untangle the complex web of financial relationships that undergird the state’s charter school sector and bring more transparency to the system.

“I’ll be gone,” he said in one of his final speeches on the Senate floor, “but I hope some of you will pick up this mantle … and go to the trouble to dig into what is going on.”

State Sen. Greg Hembree, an Horry County Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said Friday that Voorhees’ recent registration as a charter school authorizer gives him one more reason to refile a charter school accountability bill that stalled last legislative session.

If the university holds its schools accountable, Hembree said, it would be a positive for the charter movement. But if it doesn’t enforce high standards, that would be a concern.

“I think it just highlights the need for some additional oversight,” Hembree said of the college’s plans. “That doesn’t mean Voorhees isn’t going to be a great authorizer.”

Peters, the Voorhees provost, said she was aware legislators were considering reforming the state’s charter schools law, but did not expect that to interfere with the university’s plans.

“Whatever the laws are, whatever the protocols are, whatever the rules are, Voorhees will be in compliance with it all,” she said. “We will be proactive and cross our T’s and dot our I’s.”

Launching the Voorhees Charter Institute of Learning

As the university works through the details of its authorizing operation, the 425-student HBCU will have the benefit of several charter school veterans to guide them.

In addition to Peters, who co-founded the Orangeburg High School for Health Professions and later served as its board chair, Voorhees has two trustees with charter school experience in Dan Martin and John Loveday.

Martin, a small business owner and former Awendaw town administrator, serves as vice board chair of Carolus Online Academy , a virtual school operated by the for-profit education management company K12/Stride. Loveday, a former marketing executive and virtual charter school principal, is the chief operating officer of a for-profit charter management company that operates three classical schools and plans to open two more next year.

Like Erskine and Limestone, Voorhees plans to form a nonprofit institute, known as the Voorhees Charter Institute of Learning, that will be affiliated with but separate from the university. The university’s president will appoint the institute’s board and serve as its chairman, according to registration documents Voorhees submitted to the state Department of Education.

Peters declined to discuss how the startup would be funded, but said Voorhees’ board of trustees fully supported the effort and had pledged resources and office space to help get it off the ground.

According to the university’s registration documents, Voorhees will contribute to the institute’s operations, especially in the early stages, assisting with human resources, marketing and communication, fiscal compliance, grant writing and academic affairs.

The university also has hired an education consultant with experience working in South Carolina charter schools to help the institute’s fledgling board. Toneka Green, of 4Green Educational Consulting , will work with the board and the university’s academic and professional development coordinator for graduate studies to recruit schools and help identify and hire employees, among other tasks, according to the authorizer’s registration form.

The university plans to pay Green until state and federal funds become available, at which point Voorhees will phase out its spending on the charter institute’s operations, documents show.

The college doesn’t currently have any schools committed to open under the Voorhees banner, but will prioritize authorizing charter schools in low-income, rural areas, Peters said.

Voorhees plans to focus specifically on developing schools within a federally-designated Promise Zone that encompasses parts of Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties, where it already feeds teachers to many of the local public school districts.

“We’d love to be the education hub for the communities that are located within the federal opportunity zone,” Peters said. “It’s an opportunity for our institution to unite our community, to pull together our community partners and our resources from within the state to expand access to high quality educational opportunities, particularly in rural counties.”

As it stands, there are almost no charter schools in that part of the state, often referred to as the “Corridor of Shame,” in reference to a 2005 documentary that highlighted the dilapidated conditions and poor academic performance of the underfunded rural schools in that region.

One of the few charter management companies in South Carolina focused on opening schools in rural areas is Tutelage School Solutions , where Loveday, a Voorhees trustee, was recently promoted to chief operating officer. Green, the university’s contracted charter consultant, chairs the board of one of Tutelage’s proposed schools .

While Loveday doesn’t have a formal role in Voorhees’ authorizing push, he’s pledged his support and offered to lend his expertise throughout the process.

The former Columbia City Council candidate told The State that as a supporter of school choice he was excited by the prospect of another authorizer launching in South Carolina.

“Over the past several years we’ve seen Erskine, Limestone and now Voorhees moving toward becoming authorizers,” Loveday said. “It’s all about customer service. It’s all about choice. I think it’s good for the movement to have choice.”

When asked whether his company’s schools might take advantage of that choice and transfer from their current authorizer, the Charter Institute at Erskine, to a future Voorhees-affiliated authorizer, Loveday said that decision would be up to the charter schools’ boards.

“I can say for our schools, they are happy with where they are and they’re making great progress and making a great impact in their communities,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any intention to move anywhere.”

The prospect of charter schools transferring from one authorizer to another to escape accountability has long concerned lawmakers.

The issue, known as authorizer shopping, got significant attention in 2017, when the nascent Erskine institute received transfer requests from several underperforming schools perceived to be seeking a more permissive boss. In recent years, the Limestone Charter Association has become a destination for schools in hot water with the Erskine institute .

Loveday said he understands the concerns about authorizer shopping, but ultimately believes that charter schools benefit by having more sponsors to choose from.

“The purpose of charter schools is to have more autonomy and more localized decisions to improve student outcomes,” he said. “By having some really dynamic authorizers across the state that are different and can offer different things with different personalities, I think it’s better for schools.”