No, Hillary Clinton Does Not Want to Close Half of the Schools in the U.S.
The Democratic candidate's remarks about shuttering below average schools were taken out of context.
You may have heard that Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton wants to close half of the country's public schools.
Speaking to students at Keota High School Tuesday in Keota, Iowa, the former Secretary of State said she "wouldn't keep any school open that wasn't doing a better than average job."
And since the majority of public schools in the country aren't doing a better than average job, media outlets pounced on her remarks, pushing out headlines like, " Hillary Clinton Favors Closing Half the Nation's Schools."
There's just one problem. Clinton's sound bite was taken entirely out of context.
Let's step back and consider why she was visiting the rural town – population 1,000 – two hours east of Des Moines. It was in part to recognize the efforts of three high school students who showed up to a series of her campaign rallies over several months and begged her to visit Keota to bring awareness to the plight of rural communities.
In Iowa, those communities face a very specific threat – that of school closure.
Under state law, it's illegal for public schools to operate in deficits, meaning a few years of shortfalls can force a district to close. According to the Des Moines Register, Iowa notified to 65 districts last year that they're in danger of deficit spending, including 12 that reported negative balances in the 2013 fiscal year. In the last decide, nearly 30 have been shuttered.
Those concerns were ratcheted up this summer when Gov. Terry Branstad vetoed an item in the state budget that would have provided one-time funding of $56 million to help school districts shore up any deficits.
Without those dollars, the future of schools in towns like Keota remains uncertain.
"You had a bipartisan agreement in your legislature for more one-time student funding to help deal with some of the financial challenges that districts like this one has, and Gov. Branstad vetoed it," said Clinton. "But at the same time you have these laws that [say] if you have a deficit, you may not be able to be a school districts. That doesn't make sense to me."
She continued: "This school district and these schools throughout Iowa are doing a better than average job. Now I wouldn't keep any school open that wasn't doing a better than average job. If a school is not doing a good job then, you know, that may not be good for the kids, but when you have a district that is doing a good job it seems kind of counterproductive to impose financial burdens on it."
[You can watch Clinton's full remarks here.]
Clinton went on to specify that the issue at hand was not under the federal government's purview.
"The federal government doesn't have a whole lot to do with it," she said. "This is mostly local decision-No, Hillary Clinton Does Not Want to Close Half of the Country's Schools - US News:
