A bill before the Maine Legislature would reduce the total number of charter schools allowed in the state, even as the commission responsible for overseeing them approved a new school this week.
The Maine Charter School Commission on Tuesday greenlit the state’s newest charter application from MOXIE Public Schools for a Portland-based middle and high school focused on serving vulnerable populations like multilingual and disabled students.
It will be the state’s 10th charter school, which could be a problem because the Legislature’s education committee has just unanimously voted to endorse a bill to lower the limit on charter schools in Maine from 10 to nine.
MOXIE plans to enroll 120 students in its first year in a school located near the Portland-Westbrook line, and is focused on students who aren’t well supported by traditional public schools, including those from immigrant families, according to co-founder Beth Rabbitt.
The school is intended for anyone, she said, but designed to support the needs of a few groups of students, including new immigrant families in Maine and students with special education needs.
“If I’m a kid who comes to Portland as a secondary or primary migrant, I’m placed in Portland public schools. And then my family might get a job or might find housing 10 or 20 miles away, and while technically there are some stipulations that I could try to stay, in most cases schools aren’t prepared to serve me when I have to move. And so my education gets disrupted again and again,” Rabbitt said.
“Charters can solve for this problem. The other thing we can do is do much better diagnosis and flexible instruction to help kids who might be behind come up to speed much more quickly,” she said.
MAINE’S CHARTER LANDSCAPE
Maine law currently allows up to 10 state-approved, publicly funded charter schools. There are nine at the moment, after the commission declined to renew Harpswell Coastal Academy’s charter in 2022.
Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, sponsored a bill this session that originally would have allowed the state to increase its 10-school limit by one. The Education and Cultural Affairs Committee was split on the bill in late March before it began discussing a major amendment: The bill would instead reduce the approved number of charters in the state to nine.
The committee reconsidered the bill last Wednesday with the reduced cap. Members briefly caucused, then unanimously voted “ought to pass” on the amended version.
The bill will still need approval by the full House and Senate, although with unanimous support at the committee level, that may be a smooth ride.
State Sen. James Libby, R-Cumberland, who proposed the amendment, said in an email Friday that the motivation was financial.
“At a time of significant resource shortages, this unanimous vote sends a message to our public schools that the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs does not favor spending millions in per-pupil taxpayer dollars on new charter schools at this time,” he said. “We currently encourage new school development in the private sector.”
Libby said MOXIE’s then-pending application “may have played a role with some members” in the decision to lower the cap. He said concerns were raised about their enrollment goals, in light of “the likelihood of significant local public school funding impacts on existing schools.”
Rabbitt said she’s frustrated that her school seems to have been caught in political crossfire.
“What we’re seeing is a really political environment where Democrats oppose charters, Republicans have historically pushed for school choice, and in a moment, because of the type of charter we have proposed and the kids we’re seeking to design for, it was the bringing together of totally different motivations, potentially, for the same purpose,” Rabbitt said. “Kids out there deserve this opportunity, and we’re so, so close.”
CAP UNCERTAINITY
It’s unclear whether the new cap, if approved by the full Legislature, would prevent MOXIE from getting off the ground. Lana Ewing, executive director of the state charter school commission, said her group doesn’t believe the legislation would impact an already-approved 10th charter.
“It’s our understanding that the proposed legislation will not impact their ability to open because it was approved under the current law in Maine, which is a cap of 10 charter schools,” Ewing said. “In the future, if the commission voted to close a charter public school, my understanding is that the commission would not be able to fill that spot and approve another school, but that would be after this proposed legislation became law.”
But Rabbitt said the Maine attorney general’s office told her last week that if the proposal becomes law, the charter is in trouble. She said the state’s interpretation is that when the charter commission does a review of schools in the fall, the nine-school limit would trigger the need for a closure.
“We were told that if we’re approved, that approval would be conditional,” she said.
A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office declined to comment on the implications of the bill or confirm that the office provided that interpretation.
MOXIE APPROVED
MOXIE applied to become Maine’s 10th charter in February and went through several interviews and reviews by the commission over the course of the spring. Rabbitt said she and the others behind the school were motivated by declining test scores in Maine schools and increased student mobility as a result of housing insecurity.
“Student mobility is increasing a ton within Maine … we have an increasing number of multilingual learners who need more language support, as well as kids in foster care who are in special education,” Rabbitt said.
During the commission meeting Tuesday, Ewing described MOXIE’s application as strong, with satisfactory supports for vulnerable student populations, a flexible but structured learning plan and good operational details.
She said that the launch is conditional on the school meeting a few requirements, such as reaching enrollment targets, achieving staff hiring goals and setting graduation criteria.
The commission approved the school in a 5-2 vote, which allows the school to enter into contract negotiations in hopes of a fall 2026 opening.
Rabbitt, meanwhile, is pushing for a clarification on the language in the proposed legislation to allow already-approved schools to be allowed to remain, and for the cap to be lowered to nine only once another charter closes. The language of the amendment has not yet been finalized.
We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is found on our FAQs. You can modify your screen name here.
Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve.
Join the Conversation
Please sign into your Sun Journal account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.