Public schools in America are failing a significant number of students, particularly poor and minority ones, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is no exception. It's one of the biggest crises our nation faces, because the consequences ripple throughout society, and do so for decades.

That's why it's so encouraging that Charlotte's most notable foundations have come together to try to help tackle the problem. The region's biggest givers have teamed up to study best practices across the country. They'll then figure out how to apply those lessons to CMS and, it appears, back the effort up with millions of dollars.

The initiative has great potential to shape what is probably the community's most important public asset - its public schools. But organizers are getting off on the wrong foot by shutting out of the process the very public they aim to help. Members - who include Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, Superior Court Judge Calvin Murphy, business leaders and foundation executives - will meet Wednesday behind closed doors. Future meetings will also be closed to the public.

That approach is anathema to the group's own mission. The whole purpose of the CMS Investment Study Group, as it's being called, is to tackle a very public problem by investing in public education for the benefit of the public as a whole. By closing their deliberations off from that public, the foundation leaders hurt their effort's credibility, and the quality of their work will suffer.

We understand their desire to craft their plan in private. It's certainly easier and less messy to leave the public out of the room, and any donated dollars will have the same value regardless.

But the secret approach violates the spirit of their work and, importantly, leaves out a lot of the constituencies that need to be part of the solution.

Closing the achievement gap between white and minority students, reducing the dropout rate and improving education for all students is not something CMS can do alone. It needs to partner with stakeholders throughout the community. Kids who are failing in school not only need instruction that connects with them. They need involved parents. They need adequate housing. They need things to do after school. They need people to get them back on track when they veer off.

CMS can't do all that by itself. It needs the whole community and its varied institutions to partner in cohesive solutions. The foundations' collaboration could be a perfect opportunity to make that happen. But not if they leave those potential partners on the wrong side of a closed door.

It's all reminiscent of the task force created in 2005 to help CMS find new models for educating students. That group also got off on the wrong foot by meeting privately, breeding counterproductive suspicion about what it did and didn't consider and coloring the public's perception of the panel and its work.

Like that task force, this one faces no legal requirement to meet publicly. But also like that one, this group will ultimately need public buy-in to be a success.

We again applaud the foundations for their passion around this important topic. Their work and generosity have tremendous potential. But at its core, the problem of underperforming students affects all of us, and solving it requires all of us. All of us should be welcomed to that fight.