Column by Trevor Ivey: No opportunity should have a waitlist: A new seat. A different table. The same commitment to South Carolina's students.

As I prepare to take my seat on the South Carolina State Board of Education representing the Third Judicial Circuit, I do so with gratitude, responsibility and appreciation for the community that made me who I am.

I am a proud product of our public schools, growing up in Wedgefield and graduating from Lakewood High School. I was shaped by educators who saw potential in me - including Rosa Strong, Beth Ski, Valarie Pryor, Lori Smith, Maureen Albright and Lori Csintyan - and whose impact I still carry today.

I am grateful to Sen. Jeff Zell, Sen. Jeff Graham, Speaker Murrell Smith, Rep. David Weeks, Sen. J.D. Chaplin, Rep. Fawn Pedalino and Rep. Keishan Scott for their endorsement. I will represent Clarendon, Lee, Sumter and Williamsburg counties well.

For 13 years before founding Liberty, I served in Title I settings as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and district human resources administrator. Those experiences taught me that talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not.

In 2010, in Professor Kay Merseth's A326 course on school reform and charter schools at Harvard, I put on paper a vision for the school I believed my hometown deserved. I will never forget her response: Go do it. Your community needs you. Why go somewhere else when you have a hometown that helped make you who you are? Another Harvard course, A122 on family engagement, pushed me to Achievement First in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where I taught summer school and experienced Hopes & Dreams conferences. They taught me to check my biases at the door and begin with a family's hopes and dreams for their child. I have never met a parent who did not want the best for their child. In Professor Jal Mehta's A100 course on educational policy, I was challenged to look beyond the classroom and understand how policy shapes what is possible for students, educators and communities. He pushed me to see that lasting change requires not only great schools, but also thoughtful policy that creates the conditions for great schools to thrive.

Those experiences gave me ideas I wanted to bring home.

In 2019, that opportunity took shape through a vision shared on North Main Street by our Board Chairman, Greg A. Thompson. For seven years, we have led and learned together, and I have seen firsthand his laser-sharp focus on making Sumter better. Public leadership often invites criticism, but proximity has given me a perspective that opinions from a distance cannot. I have watched Mr. Thompson quietly give his time, resources, relationships and heart to this community, expecting little in return. I know the man behind the public perception, and I know how deeply he loves Sumter and believes in its children. This community is better because he chose to invest himself in it.

Today, Liberty serves 1,066 scholars across three campuses. We earned a Good state report card rating in our first year of eligibility, became South Carolina's first public charter Purple Star School, raised approximately $10 million in grants and philanthropy, and received national recognition through Charter School Growth Fund, Building Hope and the Yass Prize.

But the number that stays with me is 2,102 - the scholars on Liberty's waitlist. I do not see that number as a trophy. It keeps me up at night - and I believe it should keep all of us up at night. Every child needs a champion, and every child gets only one shot at a K-12 education. That reality is ultimately why I said yes to serving on the State Board. The question I carry with me - and challenge all of us to consider - is this: What are we doing, together, to ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive while making our communities, and ultimately South Carolina, a better place to live, learn, work and call home?

As I join the State Board, I am not going to Columbia to advocate for one school or one type of public school. I am going to advocate for students. And I take that responsibility personally. Just as I made a promise to the families I first served at Cherryvale Elementary - and later to every family that chose Liberty - I make that same promise now: I will take this responsibility seriously, listen deeply and never lose sight of who this work is ultimately about.

My priorities are clear: accountability that drives improvement; stronger educational outcomes for every student; empowering parents with meaningful information, voice and high-quality choices; attracting, developing and retaining excellent educators; and expanding pathways to the middle class and beyond.

Ultimately, these priorities are connected. Strong outcomes create opportunity. Accountability protects our promise to families. Empowered parents strengthen schools. Great educators change lives. And meaningful pathways make education a bridge to economic mobility. That is how we make our communities - and ultimately South Carolina - a better place to live, learn, work and call home.

South Carolina has great things happening in public education. We should celebrate progress while remaining hungry for more. I carry gratitude for mentors Libby Ortmann, Sherry Beaman, Jeannie Pressley, David Fair, Debra Rabon and Cynthia Copeland. They invested in me, challenged me, opened doors and shaped me early in my career. I am who I am today in no small part because of them.

The question that has followed me from Wedgefield to Harvard to Crown Heights, back home to Sumter, through seven years of building Liberty, and now to a statewide table, remains: How do we create more pathways to hope and opportunity for the next generation than existed for the generation before them?

Years ago, I put that dream on paper. A professor challenged me to come home and do something about it. This community gave me the opportunity to try. Now there is more work to do.

I am ready to get to work - for Clarendon, Lee, Sumter, Williamsburg and every student across South Carolina.

Dr. Trevor T. Ivey, NBCT, is the Third Judicial Circuit representative on the South Carolina State Board of Education.