How Hope Drives Empowerment and Empowerment Drives Change in Education

It’s the holiday season, and all around us are reminders of joy, celebration, and the hope that so many of us feel this time of year, particularly when we consider the new beginnings and the promises of the new year just around the corner.

I’ve been thinking a lot about hope lately – partially because of this holiday season we’re in, but also because of how important I’m realizing hope is as a driver of change in our world of education. We talk a lot here at the South Carolina Public Charter School District about outcomes, equality, opportunity, and growth – but hope, I’m realizing, is the prerequisite for everything else. 

Because until a parent (or a student) has that real, burning hope that makes them believe that a better future IS possible, then there can be no catalyst for change.

Change begins with the hope that a better future is possible.

As a parent first and an educator and administrator second, I know how deeply we all want our children to reach their full God-given potential in school. We know school is an important building-block for success in life, so we all share a universal hope that our kids will be able to go to schools that will give them that foundation for lifelong achievement. 

Since our children only get one shot at life, if they're not able to reach their full potential in the school where they currently go, then they need the option to go somewhere else. But when those options are limited to expensive private schools or they simply aren't there, that’s when hopelessness can start to creep in. 

At the South Carolina Public Charter School District, we aim to fight back against that hopelessness by continuously expanding public schooling options for families across our state. We have so many children in South Carolina who live in areas where a zip code traps them. But zip codes, attendance zones, borders on a district map – they’re all just imaginary lines. We need to be brave enough to break down these lines so that we can show families and young people that they do have options, and that there is hope for them. Because no action can follow – no change can occur – unless families and students first believe a better future for them is possible. 

Out of hope comes empowerment – and empowered people drive change.

Recently, we had a student from Midlands Middle College on our Kids First radio show. She told us how the traditional public high school she had previously attended didn't inspire her to learn, and how she wasn't motivated by the school to succeed. She needed a school where she felt like she belonged academically. 

After her parents transferred her to Midlands Middle College, she began thriving because her teachers and peers inspired her to work hard. She's now a 4.0 student, a leader in their student government, and an aspiring nurse – all while working 40 hours a week as a restaurant manager.

This student's story demonstrates what hope does for individuals, families, and communities. When a student or a parent sees that a better future is possible, the hope they have in that potential future empowers them to push for change. And that cycle of hope driving empowerment, and empowerment enabling change, then feeds upon itself – growing ever larger and more impactful as empowered people show others what’s possible and spark that hope in others.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents had a front-row seat view into their kids’ education. Many parents were frustrated by what they saw while their kids were at home, sitting in front of the computer. This was the experience that my wife, Janie, and I had with our oldest son. 

His high school was hurting his motivation and desire to succeed as a freshman. So, we pulled him out of that school and sent him to a parochial school because they were open and the kids there were learning. And over the past three years there, he has joined the wrestling and football teams while continuing to make excellent grades. He joined the Army National Guard and graduated Basic Combat Training while still in high school, he earned his Eagle Scout Award, and he just got accepted to The Citadel, where he'll attend next year. For our son, making changes to his education made all the difference for him.

I’m quick to note that issues in challenged schools often aren't caused by teachers who simply don't care. Most teachers care deeply about their students. But they are hamstrung by the system itself. In many cases, teachers have too little freedom in their classrooms to make decisions that will help kids succeed and learn, or they are limited in their impact by larger forces outside their classroom and outside their control.

Even with teachers, then, we see the same principles in play: Where there is little freedom and few options, there is less hope and empowerment. But where there are options, and a belief that human individuals can have a level of say in what happens to them, then there is hope – and that hope drives empowerment and change, with all manner of good effects happening downstream as a result.

Our charter schools believe these truths at every level, and that is why our outcomes are so strong and our teacher attrition rates are so low. In our schools, we have freedom to discuss what goes on in the classroom, and teachers can collaborate with parents to discuss each child's unique learning needs. Our teachers have the autonomy to do what is best for their students, to personalize their students’ learning, and to ensure that students are mastering their subjects before they advance to new grades. It is a high level of freedom for our teachers and our schools – but the learning outcomes prove the power of our approach. 

Sharing this message of hope across our state and equipping families, communities, and schools for action.

As a District, we want to spread the news all across our state that this kind of educational freedom and choice is possible, and is available to every family – regardless of geographic boundaries, income levels, or social status. Specifically, we want first (1) create hope in parents by showing them that better futures are possible, and second, (2) equip the communities of our state and the schools in our District with the resources they need to grow, expand, and continue to increase freedom of choice in South Carolina. 

So – how do we first create that hope?

The answer requires more space than I have here to write, but I’ll share one of my favorite ways to drive hope – by telling, far and wide, the stories of other families who have experienced the life-changing freedom of school choice. People will only be empowered to send their children to a charter school or to start a new charter school in their community if we are actively sharing the good news of school choice in every corner of our state. Our Kids First Radio Show, our Kids First Podcast, our engagement on social media, and all of our community outreach efforts are focused on sharing these stories of hope so that we can make people aware of the options they have, and leverage that hope to create empowered families and empowered communities driving change all across South Carolina.

Once that cycle of hope → empowerment → change starts to take effect, our next mission as a District is to equip those families, those communities, and the schools already within our District with the resources they need to grow and drive change.

Whether it be through helping them find a local charter school, start a new charter school, or get more involved in improving their existing local traditional public school, we help parents learn their options, and we work hard to provide as many great options to them as possible. And as parents start to exercise their freedoms by taking advantage of those options, they will share with others what they’re doing for their children, inspiring hope in others that perhaps a better future is possible for them and their kids, too. 

And that is how the cycle of hope will continue to grow.

Fleeing hopelessness: a real-world example of hope in action.

I’ll close with a story: I recently visited one of our charter schools and met a parent who left New York during COVID and moved with her son to South Carolina. She shared that when schools shut down in New York, she was highly concerned about what that would do for her son’s education. They had family in South Carolina – and she had hope that a better future was available for her son here – so she made a bold decision and packed up everything she owned to move south, swapping the closed schools of New York with the open schools of South Carolina.

This mother told me how inspired she had been to learn that there were charter schools in South Carolina, believing that if her son could get into a charter school, it would change the trajectory of his life. And that is exactly what happened – her son enrolled in one of our charter schools, and the school was intentional in helping close any learning gaps that he had experienced due to the school shutdowns in New York. This mother was so thankful that she had had the power to do what was best for her child and that her child had landed in a school where he belonged, and where he could get the personalized learning he needed. 

That is what this is all about – empowering parents to drive positive and lasting change by inspiring them with the hope that better futures are possible for them and their kids, and equipping them with the resources they need to make that aspirational future into a reality.

This is the heartbeat of what we strive to do at the South Carolina Public Charter School District through our work authorizing and supporting public charter schools in our state. And that is what we will continue to do into the years to come, in 2023 and beyond.

I want to wish you all the light of hope this holiday season. May we fight for freedom together, never allowing hopelessness to win the day in our schools, our families, and our lives.

Kids First,

Chris