Evidence Against School Closures

The Primary Harms of School Closures

  1. School closures don’t save significant money.

    A 2011 report by the Pew Charitable Trusts examined school closures in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. finding that “no district has reaped anything like a windfall.”According to the Advancement Project, “School closures often lead to further decreased enrollment when neighborhoods are left only with charter options, which only further exacerbates any budget shortfalls.”  

  2. School closures hurt students.

    When schools close and consolidate, classroom sizes balloon, leading to poorer academic outcomes and long-term harm.  According to Education Week, “Students who attend a school that closes during their K-12 career have lower test scores along with worse attendance and behavior in the short term. In the long term, they’re less likely than their peers to complete college and have a job, and their earnings tend to be lower.”

  3. School closures shove students into the school-to-prison pipeline.

    Overcrowded schools – with traumatized students – that frequently result from closures often produces additional disciplinary issues, as well as student truancy. 

  4. School closures hurt neighborhoods.

    Empty school properties often sit vacant for years and negatively impact homeowners, residents, and small business owners.

HOW TO STOP SCHOOL CLOSURES

And respond to different threats of closures in your community.

School closures due to budget cuts

    • Challenge the narrative that school closures save significant money (THEY DON’T!)

    • Audit the district budget

    • Redirect the narrative to target expenditures that harm students and hypocritical budget decisions for cuts

    • Demand a robust equity audit of your district’s school closure proposal

    • Advocate for your state department of education to provide supplemental funding to keep your school open

School closures due to under-enrollment

  • Investigate school enrollment numbers in other neighborhoods

  • Propose other programs or centers take up underutilized space

  • Demand your district invest resources in “under-enrolled” schools

  • Draw attention to new schools or programs and demand that money be reinvested in existing schools

School closures due to buildings in poor condition

  • Point out improvements at other schools or facilities 

  • Point out inequitable state aid

  • Demand the district address historic structural bias

  • Refute the claim that the school closure is equitable

“Saving your schools from closure is one step to retaining and then strengthening community control and transforming your community’s schools into well-resourced, welcoming, nurturing, liberatory places that empower and serve the needs of your community and ensure that all students thrive.”
Read the Entire Toolkit Here

Death by A Thousand Cuts

School closures do not save money! They are a racist weapon districts deploy against Black and Brown communities. Closures devastate community networks, push Black and Brown families out of neighborhoods, and serve to enrich wealthy charter school operators.

  • Undermine Educational Quality

  • Expand the School-to-Prison Pipeline

  • Diminish Teacher Effectiveness

  • Waste Community Resources

“Closing a school is one of the most traumatic things that can happen to a community. . . . It has been nothing short of devastating to the health and development of many of our children and youth, has put a strain on our families. . . . It also frequently triggers a downward spiral from which many school systems have yet to escape. Indeed, one of the most likely outcomes from school closures is that additional ones will soon follow, to the point that many of our communities no longer have a single public school in them.”

The Report

More Insight about School Closures

The Plan to Eliminate Public Schools Has Started in San Francisco

  • Thwarted conservative plots to shutter schools in San Francisco gives us insight into the greater school privatization movement, and how to fight back against it.

  • In 2022, conservatives slandered three progressive members of the Board of Education who were consistently advocates for students of color

    • Unfortunately, these school board members were then recalled - due to the efforts of conservative backed “astroturf” groups (“astroturf” = fake grassroots!)

  • Despite community advocacy defeating the efforts to shutter schools in October 2024, SFUSD superintendent Maria Su is trying to reopen the discussion regarding school closures

  • This has created a cycle of chaos and drama on the school board, a subsequent lack of funding, which then feeds into the school closure narrative

  • This is unacceptable, and we must fight back!!

Doomloop Dispatch Podcast

  • Host Kevin Jones discusses recent issues that hinder the school district and have inspired parents to fight for change, good and bad.

  • Host Kevin Jones and Brandee Marckmann discuss former Mayor London Breed’s selection of a new school board president, charter school Administrator Phil Kim, and the district’s push to close schools because of budget issues.

  • As the old players from the 2022 school board recalls show their faces again, whining about “equity grading” and ethnic studies, Brandee and Host Kevin Jones discuss why they’re making such a stink and what the real issues are at San Francisco’s schools.

Student Outcome Focused Governance is Impuissant

Student Outcome Focused Governance (SOFG) is a method of school board governance that puts inadequate “student outcomes” above all else – including vital metrics like student safety, culturally relevant curriculum, and more. It places the responsibility of anything not related to limited “student outcomes” solely on the superintendent. The problem with this method is that there is only one person in charge of all the decisions, and if their mind is made up, there is nothing community members can do.

This method is incredibly undemocratic, and defeats the purpose of a democratically elected school board. Additionally, community members’ only course of action when trying to defend programs is to go to the superintendent, and they are unable to petition at school board meetings.


Important aspects of student wellness at school include school safety, culturally welcoming schools, small class sizes, and healthy school lunches. Under SOFG, none of these are considered relevant to student outcomes. SOFG does not provide a comprehensive and holistic approach to student outcomes, and should be rejected.