Families deserve school choice. MBLI deserves fair treatment.

The MECCA Business Learning Institute (MBLI) opened in August 2025 as a public charter school serving Montgomery County middle school students. Families chose MBLI because they wanted a public school option that combines strong academics with business education, financial literacy, leadership development, and real-world career preparation for their children.

Today, MBLI is open and operating. Students are in school each day receiving instruction and services.

Yet on February 19, 2026, six months after the school opened, the Montgomery County Board of Education voted to revoke MBLI’s charter effective June 30, 2026.

If allowed to stand, this decision would disrupt the education of hundreds of students and families who chose MBLI as their public school.

This petition asks for something simple: Fairness.

A New School Operating Inside District Systems

Opening a new public charter school within an existing district system requires coordination across many district-controlled processes.

MBLI is in its first year of operation. Many of the district processes needed to support a new charter school entity are still being established and clarified. As a result, both the district and the school have been navigating implementation challenges that often arise when a new public school is launched.

MBLI continues working through these operational pieces in real time while the school remains open and serving students.

The Problem

During MBLI’s first months of operation, concerns were raised before supporting student-level documentation had been provided. MBLI requested clarification and verification to ensure any issues could be addressed accurately.

Once specific findings were identified, MBLI developed and implemented a Corrective Action Plan, completed corrective actions within the established timelines, and documented the steps taken. Corrective processes exist to identify concerns, allow schools to address them, and verify compliance—not to bypass that cycle once corrective action has been completed.

However, a serious concern remains

MBLI was confronted with allegations of special education noncompliance from MCPS before MCPS conducted an on-site review and before student-level documentation had been provided to substantiate the claims.

Allegations were advanced and escalated even though MBLI repeatedly requested the specific student-level information needed to confirm the assertions.

When MCPS later produced tables and summaries, MBLI’s review identified material inaccuracies in how concerns were characterized and whether they existed at all.

Critically, some of the earliest allegations were presented before MCPS had visited the school and met with the MBLI team, raising a fundamental fairness question:

How can definitive compliance claims be made before first-hand verification occurs?

During this entire time:

• MBLI has remained open and operating.
• Students have continued receiving instruction and services.
• MBLI has documented service delivery and, where appropriate, corrective steps.

Fair oversight depends on verified facts, accurate records, and proportional responses, not escalation based on unverified or inaccurate allegations.

Why this matters for every family 

This issue is bigger than MBLI.

Public charter schools exist to give families additional public education options, real school choice within the public system. But school choice only works when accountability is applied fairly, consistently, and based on verified facts.

If a new public school can be closed in its first year based on allegations advanced before verification and supported by documentation, then public school choice is not secure for any family.

What we are asking

We are asking MCPS to act in good faith and allow MBLI to operate as the Montgomery County Board of Education originally approved.

Specifically, we ask MCPS to:

• Refrain from retaliatory actions or punitive escalation that undermine school operations, staff stability, and families’ right to a public school choice.
• Partner with MBLI to establish clear, timely processes for start-up operations and compliance so expectations are fair, transparent, verified, and consistent.
• Release the per-pupil funds currently being withheld so MBLI can operate responsibly as a public school serving enrolled students.
• Allow MBLI to implement its approved extended-day model and work collaboratively with MBLI and the relevant bargaining units to establish the agreements and procedures necessary to do so.

Stand for Fairness and School Choice

Families deserve public school choice.
MBLI deserves fair treatment.

If you believe public schools, traditional or charter, should be evaluated using fair, transparent, and consistent standards, and that families deserve meaningful school choice options, please sign and share this petition.

Support MBLI students.
Protect public school choice in Montgomery County.

Sign the petition today.