Proceed With Caution When Closing Schools

Districts must address school closures comprehensively

Philadelphia's state-appointed School Reform Commission last month approved the closure of 23 district buildings—an unprecedented action for our region that is expected to affect roughly 14,000 students and hundreds of staff members. In New York City, which has already closed nearly 140 schools over the past decade, another 23 closures are on the horizon. The District of Columbia is bracing for as many as 15 closures after shuttering two dozen sites in 2008. The Chicago public school system—the nation's third-largest district—recently announced plans to close 54 schools and consolidate 11 more before the 2013-14 school year begins.

Nationwide, the implications of these policies are difficult to comprehend. Yet federal and state policies that incentivize closures, continued growth in the charter school sector, and the lingering effects of the national recession are driving more districts to embrace school closure as a reform strategy and to move aggressively to downsize on a broad scale.

The rationale for these plans centers on two major assumptions that remain unproven.

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