Local non-profit wants to run charter schools in Charlotte and Raleigh. Will it work?

State education leaders are giving a local foundation a chance to build a network of charter schools serving low-income students in the Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro areas.

The N.C. Charter Schools Review Board unanimously voted Monday to allow the Movement Schools network to open two new schools in 2025: one each in Gastonia in Gaston County and Greensboro in Guilford County. Movement hopes to have up to 10 North Carolina charter schools open by 2028, as well as charter schools in Georgia and South Carolina.

“What we want to bring here is to show that you can do networks for low-income kids in the right way, and I can’t think of anybody else in a better position than us to take it on,” Tim Hurley, board chair of Movement Charter Schools, told the Review Board on Monday.

Movement has four charter schools in Charlotte. The first one opened in 2017.

In 2025, Movement hopes to open four charter schools: one each in Gastonia, west Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro. It plans to seek state approval to open a charter school in Garner in Wake County in 2027 and in High Point in Guilford County in 2028.

Movement places charter schools in underserved areas where there are large numbers of Black and low-income students.

“We do believe there’s an urgent need for parents to have more high-quality options, especially low-income parents, especially Black parents,” Hurley said.

Non-profit charter school operator

All charter schools in North Carolina are required to have a non-profit board of directors. But Movement stands in contrast to the increasing number of charter schools run by a for-profit education management organization (EMO).

Movement Mortgage was founded by former Carolina Panthers tight end Casey Crawford in 2008. The company’s Movement Foundation is its largest shareholder and uses dividends to build its network of public charter schools.

Movement Foundation owns the real estate and leases it at a reduced rent to its schools. As the network grows, the foundation plans to create and fund a non-profit charter management organization.

“I think this is exciting because it’s a homegrown charter network that’s not an EMO that is funded by a local businessman that’s had a huge success,” said Alex Quigley, a Review Board member. “I think this could be something that’s a very exciting success for our state.”

Management companies typically collect 15% of a charter school’s annual revenue as their fee. But Hurley said Movement’s new organization will charge 11%

“What there is not is a profit margin or something built into that,” Hurley said. “For us, it is what do we think it takes to provide the centralized services? That’s where it’s at.”

Is Movement expanding too fast?

Review board members praised Movement’s goals, but some questioned whether it had the capability to expand.

“Either it’s going to be one of the best things that’s happened for low socioeconomic students or it’s going to be one of those things where we went way too fast,” said John Eldridge, a Review Board member.

Eldridge pointed to how Movement has backed off on some of its previously announced expansion plans.

Movement recently withdrew applications it had filed this year to open new charter schools in 2025 in Wilmington and in Charlotte’s University City neighborhood.

In February, Movement won state approval to open three new charter schools in 2024: one each in west Charlotte, northeast Charlotte and Raleigh. But due to difficulties finding sites, Movement got approval to delay their opening to 2025.

On Monday, Hurley told the Review Board that Movement is dropping the northeast Charlotte site in favor of opening in Gastonia. Movement has already purchased a former supermarket on Davis Drive in Gastonia.

Also on Monday, Movement got the Review Board’s approval to phase out the middle school program it’s currently offering at one of the charter schools in Charlotte.

Movement willing to take on expansion ‘risk’

Kerri-Ann T. Thomas, chief executive officer of Movement Schools, said they’ve had to make changes since they announced their plan in 2021 to open 100 new charter schools over the next decade.

“There was a point in which we had huge goals and had huge dreams — and we still do,” Thomas told the Review Board. “But we were trying to go all over the map. If you want us, we’re coming.

“Now we’re like no, we want to hone in on these three states. We want to hone in on particular regions.”

Hurley told the Review Board that Movement is “already pushing the capacity for what’s possible.” But he persuaded the Review Board that approving their new charter schools will give more education options to parents who don’t have a good one now.

“Yes it’s a risk to say yes to us, but the alternative risk, the safe one, is they (parents) have no other option in this place, or you can see in the data subpar options,” Hurley said. “It’s a risk on all of our parts to go forward.”