More Public Schools Are Closing. Will the Midterms Speed or Slow the Process?
Public school closures are accelerating across the country, and voters in several states have a chance to speed up or slow down the process Tuesday.
Closures are largely determined by school board members and affected by a district’s funding situation, which itself is downstream from state legislatures and governors’ mansions.
With school board seats up for grabs and more than 12 states with ballot initiatives affecting school funding, these midterms could bring some relief to parents who are dissatisfied with plans to shut down more school buildings.
“This is one of the least popular things a district can do, and so it would be very difficult for a candidate to run on a pro-closure platform. On the other hand, you do have some candidates who have said, ‘We have steep, declining enrollment. We need to align the number of schools we have with the number of students we have. We need to shrink to match our circumstances,’” said Carrie Hahnel, a partner at Bellwether, an education research nonprofit.
Read more at The Hill.
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