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One white citizen—himself a member of the public board of education—donated five acres of land outside town. Twenty others put up $2,000 each to buy materials. Townspeople donated their labor. Construction began last May, and just 31 months later Sandy Run Academy's attractive, one-story brick building was finished. The school is what educators call "a nice plant": its seven classrooms are clean, well lighted and centrally air-conditioned. It also has a number of shortcomings. In a community that sends only 30% of its students to college, Sandy Run offers a rudimentary college-preparatory program (English, history, science, mathematics, French), but no vocational training. There is no gymnasium or athletic field, no cafeteria, and little audiovisual equipment. The auditorium has no stage. Library bookshelves are mostly empty. There are cheerleaders—but no teams to cheer.
Love of Learning. Sandy Run Academy opened this fall, and immediately added primary grades by merging with a private elementary school in nearby Gaston. The merged schools have 150 students, all white, of course, and almost all from Lexington County. They pay $300 a year tuition, plus $25 for books, and another $25 for miscellaneous expenses such as testing.
Since tuition alone cannot pay the bills at Sandy Run, the difference is being made up through contributions, solicitation by teachers and benefit parties—such as the "Harvest Carnival" recently staged by the Ladies Auxiliary, which netted the school $500. Sandy Run's eleven teachers are paid a maximum of $5,000 a year, compared with $7,300 in the public schools. All are college graduates, though several lack required credits for teaching in public schools. Headmaster William Jackson, 54, a retired public school teacher, insists that he and his staff are motivated by simple love of learning. "We're not concerned with integration, de-integration, or whatever," he declares. "We're concerned with quality education." More frankly, Burton Gunter, a plainspoken Swansea farmer who sits on the county board of education, says that segregation academies are "going to take over everywhere," because "integration is ruining education—it's one of the worst things that ever hit this country, worse than a tornado."
Teaching Prejudice. The growth of Southern segregation academies poses two distinct dangers. One is to the students who attend them. Pointing out that many of the teachers are segregationists who fled jobs in public schools to escape integration, the Southern Regional Council warns: "Their potential danger to the minds of children is enhanced because many of these schools at least tacitly approve of their prejudices." Often the approval is more than tacit: several segregation academies in South Carolina honor their graduates with diplomas and "survivor pins," which show a Confederate flag with the word survivor engraved across it.
The other danger is to the public schools. The fear is that, as white parents continue withdrawing their children to private schools, they will become increasingly reluctant to vote bond issues and taxes for the South's public schools, which already receive less support than the schools of any other region. One ironic result: poor whites who cannot afford private schools may get a worse education.