How to Fight School Closures

Abstract

Permanent closures of neighbourhood elementary and secondary schools first noticeably occurred in the 1970s in North America and Western Europe. At that time, however, nobody could have predicted how many schools would subsequently be closed – and will still be closed – due to demographic, economic and educational changes. Nobody could also have anticipated that sometimes hundreds of socially-mobilized parents or guardians or residents would consistently fail to save their schools from closure, when they re-invented arguments and strategies that they did not know had already failed elsewhere. I begin this study by clarifying why residents become upset with a school closure, and go on to speculate why some will fight a closure, whereas other similarly-upset residents may not become involved. I review the economic reasons for closing a school, especially cataloguing the types of costs and savings data and information that school boards may not publicise, and that residents may need to request or provide for themselves. After however showing that economics alone will rarely ever keep open a school, I put human faces on the officials in institutional organizations who are closing schools, and with whom residents will be fighting. I then detail and analyse the public and private strategies and activities of residents that may or may not reprieve their school. Finally, I introduce a new fight for residents about the future alternative use of a school after its closure.