Closing Public Schools in Philadelphia: Lessons from Six Urban Districts
Oct 19, 2011
With nearly one-third of its seats sitting empty, 70,000 in all, the School District of Philadelphia plans to close multiple buildings over the next two years. In doing so, Philadelphia will be following in the footsteps of cities throughout the Northeast and Midwest.
The factors prompting the closings, in Philadelphia as in the other cities, include a dwindling population of school-age children, mounting budget pressures, deteriorating facilities, poor academic performance, and the growth of charter schools and other alternatives that have lessened the demand for traditional public-school education.
Closing Public Schools in Philadelphia: Lessons from Six Urban Districts looks at six cities that have engaged in large-scale public school closings in the past decade—Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Washington—to better understand what is in store for Philadelphia.
The analysis produced the following conclusions: