by Mara Casey Tieken, The Hechinger Report
February 2, 2026
As a researcher who studies school closings and counsels local districts facing closure decisions, I know the pressures are multiple.
Many districts are facing dropping enrollments. In some places, like Boston, rising housing costs are fueling the decline; in other, more rural, areas, dropping birthrates and a graying population are causing it.
Lots of students who left public schools for private ones during the pandemic still have not returned, with new voucher programs fueling the exodus. As districts lose students, they also lose state funding. This, coupled with rising costs and uncertain state and federal support, has meant that many districts, including dozens in New York and Maine, have failed to pass school budgets.
That’s why school closures may seem logical. Close schools, “right-size” districts, save money. Problem solved.
But, oftentimes, the problem isn’t solved. Because closures usually don’t reduce staff and often incur new transportation or renovation costs, they rarely save much money. They can also lead to declines in test scores in the short term and diminished college completion and employment outcomes in the long term.
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Closures can lead to other problems as well. Absenteeism and behavioral issues may increase. In rural areas, students can spend upward of four hours a day on the bus, often on treacherous routes. Closures can mean job loss and shuttered businesses for local communities. The burden of closure is also unequal, disproportionately impacting Black students and low-income students.
Unfortunately, school closures might be one of the few remaining issues with bipartisan support, with closures now being considered or enacted all over the country.
Many are in red states. The West Virginia Board of Education, for example, just voted to close schools in six counties. When Mississippi’s legislature reconvenes this month, it will take up the issue of district consolidation, which typically leads to closures. Several thousand miles away, school boards have been closing schools across Alaska.
But the closures are under way in blue and purple cities and states, too. New Jersey, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are considering district consolidation laws that could lead to school closures. The St. Louis Public School Board is proposing closing more than half of its 68 schools; Atlanta is closing 16. Even reliably blue New England is jumping on the closure bandwagon: Despite widespread protests, the Boston School Committee just voted to close three schools; Hartford may also debate closures in the coming months; New Hampshire is considering its own district consolidation legislation; and Democratic lawmakers in Vermont have sided with the state’s Republican governor to embrace his consolidation efforts while the tiny state grapples with its declining population.
Ultimately, these closures are exactly what President Donald Trump is looking for. He has said little about them, but he doesn’t have to. He’s underwriting them.
Trump’s desire to dismantle public education is clear. He has ravaged the U.S. Department of Education, moving many of its core functions to other federal departments and firing over a thousand staff. He has reduced federal oversight of public schools and used the Office for Civil Rights to drop protections for public school students. He has withheld federal funds for teacher professional development and services for English language learners. And he has created the first federal private school voucher program, at an estimated cost of up to $51 billion each year. From every front, his administration is launching a major assault on public education.
At the same time, state and local officials are shuttering public schools: December was filled with news of closures. In fact, perhaps unwittingly, these officials — including those in blue states — may be doing just as much to undo public education as Trump is.
We need to stop the rampant closing of schools.
There are more reliable strategies for saving money, such as adopting service-sharing agreements that allow multiple districts to collaboratively manage and deliver key services, like transportation. Multi-grade classrooms and virtual options can relieve staffing pressures, and dual-enrollment programs can help small schools support robust curriculums. Meanwhile, states’ funding formulas are often outdated; examining those for possible cuts and expansions could also offer support to struggling districts.
In the rare cases when closures are necessary, there are better ways to close. We can use accurate data to guide planning, involve local communities in closure decisions and repurpose school buildings as community centers or preschools. We can close more judiciously, keeping schools in low-income and Black communities — the places that states most often neglect.
We also need policies that address the root causes of closure: not only privatization and federal defunding, but also gentrification, economic restructuring and growing inequality.
Right now, many Democrats and education advocates are just holding their breath, hoping that a new administration in a few years will quickly reverse Trump’s devastating education policies.
But they might wake up on the next Inauguration Day and find that, even with a new administration ready to revive public education, there are few public schools left to resuscitate.
Mara Casey Tieken is a professor of education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. She is the author of “Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them” and “Why Rural Schools Matter.”
Contact the opinion editor at [email protected].
This story about school closures was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.
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