In South Carolina, school choice means that parents have more opportunities to select a quality educational setting that best fits the academic and personal goals and needs of their family. Charter schools—tuition-free institutions that are publicly funded and overseen by an independent, state-approved academic agency—are one of these options. In the fall of 2023, the town of Lexington welcomed its first charter school, the American Leadership Academy. This K-12 initiative promotes a positive learning environment where academics, ethics, and extracurriculars align with traditional family values.
In 1996, the South Carolina Charter Schools Act was passed to provide for the establishment of charter schools. With the sponsorship of the South Carolina Charter School District, the public school district, or institutes of higher learning, these autonomous educational initiatives have been founded to offer an enhanced academic environment for school-aged children throughout the state. Just like conventional public schools within the district, charter schools are available to the local community and are tuition-free.
Since this law was passed, the number of these charter schools, and the population of the students who attend them, have steadily increased. Several are located within the greater Columbia area, but the latest of these—and the first to be opened in the town of Lexington—is the American Leadership Academy (ALA). This impressive campus is located at 109 Innovation Place, a thoroughfare off of South Lake Drive near Interstate 20. ALA officially commenced its first school day on August 21, 2023, shortly after a welcoming event was held for the enrolled families.
“ALA Lexington looks forward to partnering with parents in the local community to deliver a high-quality education inclusive of a values-based curriculum in a moral and wholesome environment this fall,” says Melody Hudson, director of marketing and public relations for Charter One, the agency appointed to oversee the operations at ALA Lexington. “Charter One is a national education management organization that supports Pre-K-12 charter school operations across Arizona, North Carolina, and South Carolina schools, with continued growth planned for the future.”
At ALA, “Parents can drop their children off in one location because the lower school serving students in grades K-5 and the upper school serving students in grades 6-12 are located in the footprint of one convenient campus,” explains Ms. Hudson. “Therefore, students can stay on one campus and in one school family for their entire K-12 experience.”
Furthermore, ALA Lexington offers “the full high school experience and a wide variety of extracurricular activities at both the upper and lower school,” says Ms. Hudson. “In addition to the core curriculum that aligns with South Carolina state standards, we will also offer Dave Ramsey financial literacy courses, entrepreneurship courses, dual enrollment courses with area colleges, band, orchestra, choir, robotics, sports, and more!”
“Unlike traditional schools, charter schools have no boundaries, so we offer more school choice to area families,” says Ms. Hudson. “ALA Lexington is different on purpose. The school will focus on creating tomorrow’s leaders today by instilling values, patriotism, and creating civic-minded individuals.”
With an approach that extends beyond textbook learning, ALA’s objective is to identify and develop each student’s unique abilities so they can grow to become well-rounded citizens who are positive contributors and leaders within the greater community. “We teach students how to think, not what to think,” says Ms. Hudson, “so they can help learn, lead, and change the world in ways that support the school’s RAISE values, which stand for Respect, Accountability, Integrity, Service, and Excellence.”
“The benefits of attending ALA Lexington are vast,” Ms. Hudson continues, “but among those most important are that we reinforce what’s being taught in the home, partnering with parents at every turn. Our traditional approach to education creates distraction-free learning in a moral and wholesome environment. For example, ALA students wear uniforms, are seated facing forward to get the most out of their lessons, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning.”
The concept and trademark of the American Leadership Academy were “established in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2009 by its founder, Glenn Way,” says Ms. Hudson. “Mr. Way sought to create the kind of school he wanted to send his children to, a school with a values-based curriculum in a moral and wholesome environment. He did just that and quickly found that other parents in the community wanted the same things for their children. Since then, ALA has grown in popularity and locations.”
Ms. Hudson explains that 18 other ALA campuses have been opened in the greater Phoenix area of Arizona with two additional schools in North Carolina. ALA Lexington is the first in South Carolina.
Cameron Runyan serves as the superintendent and chief executive officer for the Charter Institute at Erskine, a statewide school district and charter school authorizer affiliated with Erskine College, a historic, private Christian institution located in the Upstate region of South Carolina. One of his responsibilities within this position is to identify unique charter schools in the United States that have strong reputations for their academic and cultural excellence and to establish those same exceptional educational models within South Carolina.
Founded in 2017, the Charter Institute at Erskine is a 501(c)(3) organization that oversees 28 schools across the state. According to Mr. Runyan, “We have students in every single zip code, and teachers in every single county in the state of South Carolina now.”
Another main function of the Charter Institute is to ensure that each academic facility maintains its compliance with the proposal that the school submitted in the application process. In addition to supervising areas such as finances, discipline, and academics, Mr. Runyan says, “We oversee federal programs, state testing, [and] state programs; we have a communications department; we handle school improvement; we do data reviews with the schools, looking in their academics and where they can improve and where they’re doing things well; and we put resources behind them to help that. So basically, we’re a school district, in essence, but we’re different because we’re private.”
The schools that the Charter Institute is seeking to bring to South Carolina must also match three fundamental criteria, which Mr. Runyan lists: “We look for schools that, number one, will reinforce the values of the family; number two, they will teach understanding and respect for our Western traditions and institutions, most notably as found in the United States of America; and number three, they will produce excellence in academics and extracurriculars.”
While attending a charter school conference hosted in the West, Mr. Runyan first learned about the American Leadership Academy model. Intrigued by this concept, he toured an ALA campus in Arizona; interviewed students, staff, and leadership; and observed the classrooms and overall culture of the school.
After recognizing that this model was in alignment with the Charter Institute’s three core values, Mr. Runyan told them, “I’d like for you to come to South Carolina, but I’m not interested in you coming to open one school—if you’re going to come, you need to come to open more than that. So, we have worked together, and we have granted them approval to open a total of eight schools across the state of South Carolina, and Lexington [ALA] is the first.”
“Anybody can open a school,” he adds, “but can we run a school that reinforces our historic values in this country? And I think that’s what you are going to see at ALA. This is a very value-centric education, and of course, they rightfully bill it as a moral and wholesome education, and that’s what families want.”
“To this day,” says Mr. Runyan, “we continue to expand. We have already authorized an additional, approximately 30,000 students to join our portfolio in the coming years, all in schools that do this, producing these three things.”
“I love it so much, I have four daughters, and my children started ALA along with everybody else,” he says.
More information about the school and its application processes for both students—and qualified educators seeking employment—can be found on ALA’s website. “All parents in the state of South Carolina are welcome to apply for enrollment at ALA Lexington. We are nearly fully staffed,” says Ms. Hudson of Charter One, “but are always accepting applications. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply.”