Letters: On charter schools, Mace, movies

Erskine charter school district responds to story

To the editor:

The article by Jack O’Toole (“Critics point to weak state charter school law,” Aug. 9) cites Stanford University’s 2023 CREDO report as the basis for charter school underperformance in South Carolina. That report uses 2014-15 as its first school year of data. The Charter Institute at Erskine did not exist at that time.

The CREDO report’s last school year of data is 2018-19 – our first year as a charter school sponsor in South Carolina. The Institute is thankful to be the fastest growing school district in the state, overseeing more than 25,000 students across 26 schools, with students from every zip code in the Palmetto State. Recently, 12 Institute schools received an overall report card rating of Good or Excellent, while 11 schools increased their overall rating. Brashier Middle College, an Institute charter school, was the only charter school in the state selected by the U.S. Department of Education for its prestigious National Blue Ribbon School Program. The graduation rate for Institute high schools is nearly 87% which is higher than the State of South Carolina’s 83% rate. This is even more impressive considering how many of our charter schools are in rural communities and that we have the largest number of virtual students in the state.

I invite students and their families to learn more about the Charter Institute and the many tuition-free charter school options we offer from classical, virtual, traditional and dual enrollment, among others. The Institute is constantly learning and seeking to improve, offering best practices, academic support, and data-driven analyses to our schools. We are proud of our track record, the performance of our schools, and are committed to expanding our innovative approach to public school education in South Carolina.

– Cameron Runyan, superintendent, Charter Institute at Erskine, Columbia, S.C.

Mace is an embarrassment

To the editor:

Thank you for your recent editorial about President Joe Biden (“Character counts in 2024 elections”) and the effects his accomplishments have had in the Lowcountry.

As election day approaches, I think it is important to point out that U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) voted against the Infrastructure and the Inflation Reduction bill, both of which have been very successful. In her newsletter today, she claims, again, to have evidence of Biden’s numerous impeachable offenses, but there will never be articles of impeachment filed. Just like there were no hearings about election fraud, even though she jumped on that bandwagon shortly after taking office.

She’s another fraud in a party of cons and frauds. … She’s an embarrassment and she needs to go.

– Robert Vehorn, Hanahan, S.C.

You missed a great one: Rich in Love

To the editor

Lowcountry Locations (Aug. 30) was a nice trip down memory lane, but you left out my favorite locally-filmed movie, 1992’s Rich in Love. It was a box-office flop, but I loved watching the fine actors in Mount Pleasant, the old Cooper River bridges, and the late, great original Chapter Two bookstore on East Bay Street.

– Skip Johnson, Charleston, S.C.