I can’t understand this. A pioneer opened a school to serve at-risk youth and it’s time to criticize.

Global basketball star LeBron James, along with the LeBron James Family Foundation, opened the I Promise School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. It’s not a charter school. It’s not a private school. It’s a public school.

But things are different. Students eat breakfast with their teachers. The school day runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., July through May. After lunch, students gather in a “support circle” to relax after recess and refocus on their studies. The adults who are tasked with raising these kids can access services to earn a GED and get help finding a job. Children wear uniforms that are free. James buys bikes and helmets for every student. He provides a food pantry and a clothing center.

The school’s opening received national attention, and so did James. This was a worthy story, an athlete using his platform, his foundation, and his wallet to give back to his hometown and change the lives of the kids there.

Patrick O’Donnell of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on the school’s funding. “You wouldn’t know from all the national news that LeBron James isn’t paying for everything at his new I Promise School in Akron,” O’Donnell wrote to begin his story.

O’Donnell’s story is one of those things that communities rely on local journalism for: tracking public money. What happened after O’Donnell’s story was confusing and disappointing. People saw it as an opportunity to criticize James.

“If LeBron James wants to fight for social justice as well as basketball, he should go to Chicago and help the poor people there who are experiencing unprecedented violence,” a former Fox News host wrote in a tweet that ended by asking people to read the host’s comments.

A sports commentator took issue with the media’s “sycophantic” coverage of James, using the Plain Dealer story to make an argument about how much Akron taxpayers are paying and how little James contributes to the school.

Based on the numbers presented in the article, one could interpret the Plain Dealer story as James paying 25 percent to I Promise School and the remaining 75 percent being passed on to Akron taxpayers. The sportswriter made that leap. One could also call Akron Public Schools and ask them about the situation.

Akron’s seven-member school board approved a $345 million interim budget in June. That budget included money for I Promise School, said county finance director Ryan Pendleton.

I Promise School is not a case of James and his partners opening a school, paying a portion of the cost, and then suddenly leaving the rest to taxpayers. “We planned for this,” Pendleton said.

Pendleton said the district has allocated $2.5 million to the school, which serves 240 third- and fourth-graders, this school year. That’s less than 1 percent of the district’s total budget.

“It’s important for our people to know they’re doing something really good with LeBron James,” said district spokesman Mark Williamson. “We’re not asking them for any more money.”

The amount of money James and his foundation have contributed to the school is not yet fully accounted for, but according to the foundation, it has so far covered about $2 million in start-up costs and other additional support.

Those funds have been used to furnish and renovate the building and upgrade technology. James has paid for the school’s food bank, clothing and staffing at its family resource center. He also pays for a substitute teacher and four other teachers.

As the school adds students in each grade from kindergarten through eighth grade, Pendleton predicts that the estimated 900 students will cost the district between $8.1 million and $10 million. There is no estimate on how much James will provide. He is committed for the long term. The school will remain a public school, and he and his foundation will be there to continually provide the resources he and his mother wanted when James was growing up in Akron.

This is definitely different. It is a partnership between a public school and a private individual and their foundation. Because it is new, it needs to be flexible and undefined. There are a lot of what-ifs in this scenario, but the commitment to providing education remains the foundation for both parties.

Obviously, this is not good enough for everyone. It reeks of politics. Don’t forget, James has said negative things about President Donald Trump, so Trump supporters used the commencement ceremony as an attempt to criticize James. This is what we have become and it is stupid. A man who advocates for education, targets at-risk kids, and it is time to load his social media accounts and comments sections with the seeds of division.

After the shots at James, the media — the national media — was second on the list of critics. It was the standard criticism: It’s the media’s fault. It’s always the media’s fault. They told the story the wrong way.

The truth is, it wasn’t James’ school. He didn’t pay for it. But talk to district officials and they say this wouldn’t have happened without him.

“When you walk into that building and see the work they’re doing — that’s change,” Pendleton said.

Eventually, one partnered with a school district to open a place to educate at-risk kids. For some people, this is a bad thing and it’s a bad sign for us as a society.