If it were a prizefight, the most charitable assessment of Port Arthur ISD vs. Motiva Enterprises is that the former is fighting up in weight class against the latter.

Port Arthur is pretty stout stuff around here — 8,300 students strong, on campuses mostly new and gleaming — with a beloved superintendent and a growing reputation for providing its young charges with bountiful educational opportunities. It you haven’t seen the shiny new campuses, built with the commitment of a caring community, take the tour. You’ll be impressed.

But Motiva, Saudi-owned with pockets as deep as its oil wells, is the stuff of profit legend, recognized kingpins of OPEC. Saudi Aramco earned $111 billion last year, making it the most profitable company in the world. To Saudi Aramco, Apple is small stuff when it comes to turning a buck. That’s BIG!

So Port Arthur ISD chief Mark Porterie might be crazy to tackle Motiva, located in this city, which is protesting its assessed value and tax obligations to the local school system, among others. But he said if Motiva doesn’t pay what the Jefferson County Appraisal District suggests it should owe, the school system will lose about a quarter of its revenue in Fiscal Year 2020. Children may be hurt.

Small wonder, then, that he’s off to Austin this week to take up the cause with lawmakers and anyone else who will listen. Chances to win are steep but he’s got 8,300 reasons to take on the energy giant.

Conversely, Motiva too has some reason to stand its ground. State law — flawed, critics say — permit the oil giant to challenge the worth of its property here and to pay less in taxes. Or, Motiva might contend, the right amount in taxes. Companies get big by taking full advantage of their opportunities, and legislators have given the refineries a Texas-size opportunity.

Motiva Chief Financial Officer Georganne Hodges said in an issued statement Friday that the company pays “disproportionate” tax rates and “cannot be competitive” with other oil companies. Maybe so.

State Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, says the best tack for local schools now is to negotiate with the energy and petrochemical companies. Removing tax breaks for the companies is a longshot in Austin. He may be right.

But Motiva, which just enjoyed a decade of tax breaks, seems committed to building a future in this community, as evidenced by its recent decision to local offices downtown at great cost to themselves. They want to be neighbors. The rest of us want them to be good neighbors.

They might achieve that by working with — not fighting against — the school system to make it Texas’ best. It used to be among the best. Oil companies helped them back then. There’s a lesson there.