Lydia Pillsbury is a parent of two children at Longfellow Elementary School, including one rising Lincoln Middle Schooler. She is a contracted employee of Deering High School. Shana Genre is a parent of a child at Longfellow Elementary School and a child at Lincoln Middle School. As a Portland Public Schools librarian, she has served multiple schools. All views are the writers’ own.

The defining strength of public education is the promise that it is for everyone. This is essential to the American idea — the notion that every person has a right to a free and appropriate education.

We send our kids to our public schools every day knowing that we are part of something bigger: a community working together to do what’s best for our kids. In a community as progressive as Portland, we stay true to our values when we enroll our children in our public schools.

Yet declining enrollment across Portland Public Schools is fueling concerns about funding and the future of our school system. There have been talks of consolidation: of combining the two major high schools, of closing a middle school, of closing elementary schools, or moving lines to distribute student populations more equitably. These conversations are part of a good faith effort to best serve the students and families of this district so that we can try to deliver on this American promise.

Enter MOXIE, a new charter school near the Maine Mall making a lot of promises that we have no way of verifying. Portland parents — perhaps due to fear of school closures, perhaps out of frustration with problems in our system, perhaps out of a desire for a fresh start — are enrolling their kids there. This will of course further contribute to our declining public school enrollment, all the while chipping away at our resources and our sense that we are part of a shared educational project.

On the ground this could look like a reduction in student services, layoffs and school closures. We hope that’s not what this community wants.

Those who have been told that enrolling their children in a charter school somehow helps public schools have been misled. Public schools rely on enrollment numbers to retain funding, and this is determined on a per-pupil basis.

A school loses vital revenue when enrollment drops. All the while, the costs of building maintenance, heating and teacher salaries remain the same. In addition, the Trump administration’s federal education policies have actively squeezed budgets by proposing deep cuts to public school resources while redirecting public money toward private options.

Yet the public school idea is still a good one — perhaps the best one we have going. Within it, we have a locally elected school board that is responsible for ensuring that we do our best to deliver on this promise in good faith. We also have scores of passionate, certified educators with years of experience supporting all the kids who show up in our buildings — not just the ones who opt in. 

We have seen the charter school movement play out in other parts of our country. Charter schools open and pull students from public schools, contributing to the loss of staff and resources and sometimes even shuttering public institutions. 

However, these charter schools frequently close shortly after opening for a myriad of reasons — most often low enrollment, but money mismanagement, low attendance, and academic issues are at the top of the list. Despite this track record, families in Portland are choosing to enroll their children in a charter school.

With every student we lose from our district, we lose funding for our public schools and spread our resources even thinner. When families choose to pull their children from public schools, there are real consequences for others, and ultimately, it is our neediest students who take the biggest hit.

Are we all in this together or are we not? The American Dream is built on the promise of public education. Opting out of the public school system contributes to a movement that is literally and figuratively divisive. It not only divides our funds, but there is ample evidence that opt-in educational systems exacerbate existing racial and economic inequality. This divisive movement undermines the very values so many of us profess to believe. 

While our public schools are far from perfect — public education is an ongoing project, after all — it is most successful when we bring all of our families to the table. Introducing a charter school into a community already grappling with declining enrollment will not solve the challenges facing our school system. What some may see as an enticing new choice for their children threatens to erode the support systems public educators have spent years building. 

If we are honest with ourselves, we can recognize that participating in our public school system is central to upholding our fragile democracy. This community must examine its stated values. Are we going to subscribe to the individualism that is fracturing our nation, or are we going to be stakeholders in a shared institution? 

To fulfill the American promise of a public education, we must invest deeply in our own children, our infrastructure, our resources and our educator talent. Join us in rebuilding this shared project together.