Plans to close schools are often explored when school districts face low enrollment and financial deficits. Closing schools might seem like a logical solution to fiscal shortcomings, but it can actually be more complicated and costlier in reality.
Take, for example, the Austin Independent School District, or AISD. The district just recently proposed to close 12 schools by the 2021-22 school year to address its declining enrollment and financial challenges. I certainly understand why AISD is considering this route, but there are unforeseen, nonfiscal costs to closing schools that districts often miss in the process.
I have studied this topic for the past six years, and there are three unforeseen, nonfiscal costs that the school district leaders across the state should pay close attention to while they consider closing schools.
What districts often underestimate are the costly effects of school closures on the academic outcomes of displaced students and the costly impacts of school closures on local communities. Plus, any fiscal savings that occur are often only short-term.
Students’ academic outcomes will always be essential to school districts. But the truth is the academic outcomes for students after their schools have been closed are neutral at best, and negative in some cases. Research indicates that some students whose schools are closed experience long-term negative impacts on their reading and math scores.
Also, students whose schools have been closed are absent more often and have weaker relationships with adults and other students at their new schools. These experiences have been shown to occur even when students are able to attend schools with higher academic ratings.
So, closing one school and sending students to another school is not a simple fix and can possibly undermine the positive student outcomes that school districts want.
Schools that mainly serve African American and Latino students are closed at higher rates even when predominantly white schools have similar academic standings. In these communities, schools often represent a place of hope, pride and dreams. So, when schools are closed, it not only affects students, families, teachers and staff members, it also reverberates through the entire community.
Schools are commonly a central community institution in neighborhoods. Therefore, when schools are closed, it can leave a gaping hole, erase racial and cultural histories, and create transportation issues for students and families because some students will ultimately have to travel longer distances outside of their neighborhoods just to attend a school.
The savings after school closures are also often short term. Due to gentrification, housing unaffordability, growing competition from charter schools and many other factors, some of Austin’s schools continue to lose enrollment.
When schools in Texas consistently lose enrollment, it typically creates shortfalls for districts, especially for districts that are considered property rich. So, cutting costs is one of the main reasons that school districts cite for closing schools.
However, research shows that closing schools actually does not result in significant savings in big-city school district budgets unless combined with massive layoffs. The research is not clear on whether school closures result in long-term savings for districts.
Despite shrinking budgets and enrollments, it is imperative that school administrators focus on racial and educational equity to ensure that students who are commonly underserved by schools, because of their race, income, gender, native language or perceived ability, are at the center of any decision to close schools. Equity work requires districts to be creative in their approaches to ever-changing education contexts.
We know district administrators do not take closing schools lightly. But they should pay close attention to these commonly unforeseen, nonfiscal costs as they consider options to address their enrollment and fiscal challenges because research tells us that closing schools may not be the best option in the long run.
Terrance L. Green is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin.
A version of this op-ed appeared in the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express News and the Austin American Statesman.
