Shawgi Tell focuses on the extreme lack of transparency and accountability in South Carolina charter schools.
While poor transparency and accountability affect the entire charter school sector, South Carolina brings such problems to the fore in a sharp way. An August 30, 2026, article in The Post and Courier, “South Carolina charter schools fall short of state’s new transparency laws,” states that, “The vast majority of South Carolina public charter schools are coming up short on a new state law requiring they post a raft of key financial and governing documents to their websites, a Post and Courier review has found.”
Revealing the scope of the problem, the article notes that, “Nearly four months ago, South Carolina lawmakers passed sweeping legislation that compelled the state’s charter schools to meet many of the same online transparency standards that traditional public schools have been subject to for more than a decade. The law — South Carolina’s Charter School Accountability Act, also known as Act 123 — took years to pass, even as oversight gaps resulted in multiple lawsuits and state investigations.”
The news article admits that “Getting schools to comply will be the next challenge.” Why though? What is so hard about complying with basic requirements for transparency and accountability? Why is this such a stubborn challenge?
David Prentice, the head of finance for the Charleston County School District, whose 88 public schools include eight charters, reminds us that, “All stewards of public funds should be held to the same standards of transparency and reporting.” So why aren’t charter schools being accountable and transparent despite receiving tens of millions of public dollars?
In late August The Post and Courier “reviewed the websites of 105 charter schools for the presence of items required under Act 123 as well as transparency provisions of the state’s updated education statute and Freedom of Information Act.” What exactly did the inquiry look for? It looked for things like “a school’s current budget, audit and monthly check register, required under Act 123, as well as board meeting agendas and recordings required under other state transparency laws. These items are among dozens of documents that statewide authorizers — The Charter Institute at Erskine and the South Carolina Public Charter School District — as well as the Charleston County School District have told schools they must post.”