SC is on the verge of passing a charter school reform bill. Which one will it be?
The South Carolina Senate has a decision to make on charter school reform.
The upper chamber, which earlier this year passed legislation that would bring greater transparency, accountability and procedural clarity to the growing sector, must weigh three options in light of the House’s swift and unanimous passage of an amendment to the bill Thursday.
It could:
- Accept the House version of the bill, which largely expands on the Senate’s accountability framework with some exceptions;
- Reject the House version, sending the bill to conference committee, where a small group of House and Senate lawmakers would attempt to hash out their differences;
- Work out a compromise bill that precludes the need for a conference.
The bill’s sponsor, Senate Education Committee Chair Greg Hembree, said he favored the third approach because it gives lawmakers more flexibility in coming to an agreement.
“If you go to conference, it’s either A or B,” the Horry County Republican said. “You don’t have the flexibility to write a brand new amendment that’s in between the two.”
House Education committee chair Shannon Erickson, whose amended version of Hembree’s bill sped through the lower chamber last week, expressed a willingness to sit down with her Senate counterpart to work out a preconference compromise.
The pair has worked together for years, she said, including last session when they negotiated a compromise on competing school voucher bills.
“We work very well together, we respect one another and we will do our best to come up with what we both think each of our bodies will accept,” Erickson, R-Beaufort, said Monday.
While the House’s 45-page amendment to the charter school accountability bill largely builds on the Senate version, it does have some notable changes.
Perhaps the most impactful difference between the bills is in how they define a charter school authorizer.
Authorizers, which can be local school districts, the legislatively-created Public Charter School District or institutions of higher learning, are responsible for opening, closing and overseeing the charter schools in their charge in exchange for a portion of each schools’ state funding.
Historically, institutions of higher education that have sponsored charter schools (e.g. Erskine College, Limestone University and Voorhees University) have created affiliated, but financially and operationally independent nonprofits to run their charter districts.
While the Senate bill would codify that practice, the House version explicitly prohibits it.
If the lower chamber’s plan were to be adopted, universities would be forced to oversee their charter school operations directly, rather than delegating responsibility to “unaccountable” private affiliates, Erickson said.
The bills also differ in whom they assign to establish authorizing policies, which public officials are prohibited from opening charter schools and whether charters should be guaranteed the option to purchase a building they lease from a management company.
How do House and Senate versions differ?
In total, the lengthy House amendment to the Senate proposal makes more than two-dozen changes to the bill.
Here are some of the ways in which the House version differs from the Senate plan in how they deal with charter school and authorizer oversight, transparency and industry regulations:
Requirements for charter schools
- A charter school must post on its website the monthly statements for all the credit cards maintained by the school or any management organization that contracts with the school
- A charter school must post on its website a complete record of all funds expended over $100, excluding salaries or wages paid to individual employees. For each expenditure, the school must include the transaction amount, the payee and a detailed description of the expenditure
- A charter school must obtain approval from its authorizer prior to entering any agreement to borrow money secured by school property, funds or other assets
- A school leader certified or experienced in school administration must be physically present on site each day a school is in operation. In the event a school leader is absent for any reason, a substitute certified administrator must be present
- An existing charter school that wants to expand beyond its current location or an adjacent property must apply for replication
- Charter schools that lease a school facility from a management company are not automatically granted the option to purchase the facility within five years
Restrictions on charter school boards
- An individual is prohibited from serving as a board member of a charter school or a charter school foundation if the individual or an immediate family member is a board member of the charter school’s authorizer or the institution of higher learning
- Members of the General Assembly and immediate family members are prohibited from serving on the board of a charter school or charter school authorizer and may not have any ownership in an entity established to operate or lease property to a charter school
- A charter school authorizer shall deny a charter application submitted by a member of the State Board of Education, the Education Oversight Committee or a local school district board of trustees
Requirements for charter school authorizers
- Charter school authorizers are subject to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act
- A charter school authorizer must report to the Department of Education any teacher, regardless of certification status, who resigns, is suspended, or is terminated amid allegations of professional misconduct
- Charter school authorizers must review and monitor their schools’ enrollment procedures to ensure compliance with admissions requirements
- The Department of Education shall create an authorizer closure protocol to be fully implemented within 180 days of the closure of an institution of higher learning affiliated with an authorizer
Restrictions on charter school authorizers
- A higher education authorizer is a public or private institution of higher learning that must be in good standing with its accrediting body. It cannot be a nonprofit association directly affiliated with a public or private institution of higher learning
- A charter school authorizer, or an entity affiliated with an authorizer, is prohibited from: 1) contracting with schools or otherwise selling services to schools over which it has direct oversight; 2) influencing or attempting to influence a charter school to contract for additional services it provides; 3) unfairly competing with any private entity offering similar services to charter schools; 4) using state funds to fund, market or promote contracted services offered to charter schools for a fee; 5) contracting with a charter school to provide services necessary to remedy any alleged noncompliance; 6) receiving compensation from any contract entered into by a school it authorizes; 7) conditioning approval, renewal or evaluation outcomes on the purchase of any goods or services
- A charter school’s contract with an education management organization cannot allow profit sharing with the authorizer or any affiliated entity
- An authorizer is prohibited from using state funds for any purpose not directly related to fulfilling its obligations as an authorizer under the law
Requirements for Department of Education
- The Department of Education shall establish a process for receiving and reviewing complaints regarding charter schools and authorizers
- The Department of Education shall publish an annual report summarizing the performance of charter school authorizers and the academic and financial performance of the schools they authorize
- The Department of Education, not authorizers themselves, shall establish and implement policies, procedures and practices to ensure quality authorizing, good governance and accountability that clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the authorizer consistent with state law
Rules for locally-authorized schools
- Charter schools authorized by a local school district must collect, maintain and make available certain financial, operational and academic information to their local authorizer
- Charter schools authorized by a local school district must submit their proposed budgets to the local district’s board of trustees for approval
- Charter schools authorized by local districts for the first time after July 1, 2027, shall use a different funding formula than locally authorized schools currently use
This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 10:02 AM.