About Langston Foundation

In June 2007, The Langston Foundation was incorporated as a South Carolina non-profit corporation. We are a tax-exempt 501(c)3 corporation and are registered as a charitable organization in good standing with the South Carolina Secretary of State. Stated most basically, the Langston Foundation serves as the private-fundraising arm of Langston Charter Middle School and exists solely for its benefit and betterment.

Mission Statement

To exclusively support the Mission, Vision and Core Values of Langston Charter Middle School by providing financial support and facilities.

What We Do

The Langston Foundation works to elevate community awareness of Langston and to raise funds to meet the operational and capital needs of the school. These efforts are focused internally and externally–

Internally, through the Foundation for the Future campaign targeted toward the Langston Families that directly benefit from LCMS,

Externally, through grants and through a Capital Campaign targeted toward individual philanthropists, major donors and corporations with a vested interest in and passion for improving the Quality of Education in SC.

Our Motivation

South Carolina’s Education Finance Act (EFA) established a per pupil funding level (with annual increases for inflation) for public schools in the State based on a 1977 goal of providing a "minimally adequate” education to all South Carolinians. That target is woefully short of Langston’s standard of delivering “Excellence in Academics."

Disappointingly, the EFA has been fully funded in only 8 of the last 31 years (only 3 of the last 10). The percentage at which it is currently funded (65%) is the lowest in history. The absolute amount has now reverted to 1995 levels.

Compounding the problem, the Property Tax Relief (Act 388) of 2006 severely harmed funding for public schools in the State. It eliminated property taxes on owner-occupied homes for school operations and replaced this stable source of funding with a one-cent increase in the State sales tax – revenue that is less reliable. Enter the economic recession of 2008-10 and its accompanying 12% unemployment, and you have the resulting "perfect economic storm" for Education Funding in the State.

"Minimally adequate" IS NOT acceptable for the children of Langston Charter Middle School.

At our local level, The Greenville County School District spends on average over $9,000 annually per student yet Langston receives just over $4,000 annually per student. This funding disparity exists because SC State law does not require facility or transportation funding to be provided to Charter Schools. Langston must provide for all its operating costs out of its per-pupil funding which is less than half of that which the State considers necessary to provide a "minimally adequate" education.

At the Langston Foundation, we assert that even "minimally adequate" IS NOT acceptable for the children of Langston Charter Middle School. We are the Public-Private Partnership that delivers the funding required to sustain the standard of "Education Excellence" that Langston consistently achieves.