‘Largest’ SC charter school to open in Midlands. Will it impact local districts?
An enormous charter school is poised to open in the South Carolina Midlands. A local school district is bracing for impact.
The American Leadership Academy, a K-12 charter school network that emphasizes patriotism and moral values, bought the sprawling piece of property in Blythewood along U.S. Highway 21 last year. It had previously housed Policy Management Systems Corp., a long-defunct insurance technology company.
Charter Institute at Erskine superintendent Cameron Runyan told a legislative committee in 2025 that it was expected to be the “largest brick-and-mortar charter school in state history,” with the capacity for 3,000 students.
The campus is located within Richland School District 2, and mere miles away from district schools like Bethel-Hanberry Elementary School, Westwood High School and Blythewood High School. Given its proximity, the district could face some changes if families choose the tuition-free charter school instead.
“We do have to move forward in this process,” Superintendent Kim Moore said at a Jan. 14 school board meeting. “This directly impacts budget planning.”
State funding for public schools is tied to overall enrollment. When a district loses students, it has to more heavily rely on its local tax base. Richland 2 budget planning has commenced, and the district is preparing as best it can with early data.
“Nobody knows, [and] there ain’t nothing we can do about it,” school board member Gary Dennis told The State. “But I don’t think they got anything that can touch Richland 2.”
The State has reached out to Richland 2 board chair Angela Nash potential impacts on the district.
The Charter Institute at Erskine recruited the Arizona-based chain of schools to South Carolina. At least six have been approved, though only one has been built in downtown Lexington. Other locations are slated for Greenville and Rock Hill, according to the network’s website.
Blythewood’s American Leadership Academy campus is expected to open in fall 2026. The school’s charter application, submitted in January 2023, said the school would offer a “moral, wholesome, positive, and clean environment to allow students to learn, explore, and reach their individual potential.”
Local districts grapple with charter school impacts
Other Midlands school districts have reportedly suffered following the arrival of charter schools.
Lexington-Richland 5 enrollment declined by more than 600 students in just a year after Gray Collegiate Academy moved into the Irmo area, and staff expressed fears that the drop in attendance could drastically affect the district’s budget. School board discussion had previously pointed to the charter school as siphoning students and funding.
In the fall, Superintendent Akil Ross warned the expected drop could affect the district’s share of state funding. That could potentially require the district to need to raise taxes or cut positions if the funding loss is significant enough, although the district has not received updated funding figures from the state Department of Education as of January.
The rise in charter schools has also hampered some districts’ ability to plan in the face of growth.
More than a third of Lexington 1 school buildings are over capacity as the local population surges, and the district may have to weigh rezoning schools, or building new ones. But with more families favoring charter schools, it is difficult to know what moves to make. More residents may not guarantee the district more students.
This story was originally published January 28, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
