Education's existential crisis

Districts around the U.S. weigh closing buildings as enrollment plummets amid shrinking budgets, a falling birthrate and a growing school choice movement

- HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

JEFF ROBERSON Associated Press THOMASINA CLARKE, at Sumner High School in St. Louis, fears the historically Black community could lose its high school.

Thomasina Clarke has watched school after school close in her once-thriving St. Louis neighborhood, which was hit by a tornado this spring and whose population has plummeted in recent decades.

"It’s like a hole in the community," Clarke said. She fears a new round of closure discussions could strip the historically Black community of a storm-damaged high school, whose alumni include Tina Turner and Chuck Berry.

St. Louis Public Schools is among the districts nationwide weighing how many urban schools to keep open due to shrinking budgets, the falling birthrate and a growing school choice movement.

A district-commissioned report released this year found that the school system has more than twice the schools it needs.

Such decisions are gut-wrenching. It’s a financial strain to operate half-empty schools, but research shows kids often fare badly after closures.

In Los Angeles Unified, a steep drop in student enrollment — 27% over about 10 years and 44% over about 20 — has not been matched by a proportionate drop in the number of campuses or employees, one of several markers indicating difficult decisions ahead for the nation’s second-largest school system, a recent report showed.

Elsewhere, Philadelphia, Boston, Houston and Norfolk, Va., are considering closing schools, while a public outcry over potential closures has stopped them — for now — in Seattle and San Francisco.

How many schools will close?