As school districts across the country grapple with declining enrollment, expiring pandemic relief funds, and budget shortfalls, the push to close and consolidate schools is intensifying. But a growing body of research warns that these closures are hitting Black students and low-income communities hardest—exacerbating existing educational inequities.
According to new analysis, roughly 1% of public schools have closed each year over the past decade, displacing between 100,000 and 250,000 students annually. That's the equivalent of uprooting an entire large school district every year. While the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily slowed closures due to paused accountability policies and federal relief, the rate has now climbed back toward pre-pandemic levels—peaking at 1.3% in 2017-2018, dipping to 0.7% in 2022-2023, and rising again to 0.9% in each of the past two years.
The burden, however, is not evenly shared. Schools serving a majority of Black students accounted for about one-quarter of closures in the 2024-2025 school year, despite representing less than 10% of all schools. High-poverty schools show similar overrepresentation. Even when controlling for enrollment declines, schools with all-Black student bodies were twice as likely to close as those with no Black students, according to the research.
This pattern threatens to undo hard-won academic gains. Marginalized students suffered the largest setbacks during the pandemic and have been showing the strongest recovery in high-poverty and schools of color. But stability is key to sustaining that momentum. Closures disrupt relationships, routines, and learning environments, risking a reversal of progress.
Studies from Chicago and Philadelphia show that displaced students often experience short-term dips in reading and math scores, with no improvement unless they transfer to significantly higher-performing schools. Even then, the influx of new students can reduce achievement in receiving schools, and longer commutes lead to higher absenteeism and suspension rates. System-level barriers—inadequate transportation, limited seats, and long distances—often prevent displaced students from accessing better options.
Moreover, the fiscal benefits of closures are not guaranteed. National evidence suggests cost savings can vary, and long-term research from Texas links closures to declines in test scores, increased disciplinary incidents, lower high school completion rates, reduced college attainment, and lower earnings in adulthood. These effects are most pronounced for students from low-performing schools and economically disadvantaged communities.
District leaders must confront the inequities baked into closure decisions, experts argue. Instead of dismantling neighborhood schools that anchor Black and low-income communities, they should adopt right-sizing strategies that protect learning and advance equity. When closures are unavoidable, they must be executed transparently and with community engagement, including guarantees of no-worse placements, reduced class sizes, transportation support, and increased counseling to prevent predictable dips in attendance and achievement.
Policymakers also need to address root causes such as gentrification, declining state education funding, and broader housing and economic trends that reduce enrollment. As the Supreme Court greenlights maps erasing Black-majority districts and Louisiana GOP redraws House maps eliminating Black-majority districts, the pattern of systemic disenfranchisement extends beyond the ballot box into the classroom. Trump's racist policies and rhetoric have further cemented the GOP as anti-Black, but school closures are a bipartisan issue that demands urgent attention.
School closures reshape the daily lives of children, and without deliberate action, they will continue to disproportionately harm Black and low-income students—undermining the very recovery the nation is striving to achieve.
