It’s hard not to be paying attention to school closures if you’re paying attention to what’s happening in schools.
— Carrie Hahnel
Closing or consolidating neighborhood schools is a painful decision that no school district or community ever wishes to face, but increasingly it may be on the table due to declining enrollment trends and budgetary pressures.
In this episode, host Jason Willis and school finance and policy veteran Carrie Hahnel deepen our understanding of school closures and consolidations. They delve into current factors that could lead to more closures and data showing how closures have disproportionately impacted different student populations. They pinpoint the tension schools and communities must try to resolve between difficult and necessary budget decisions on one hand and the enormous potential equity effects of those decisions on the other.
Jason and Carrie further explore how district and school leaders can proactively approach considerations about school closures while centering equity, and:
- the extent to which closures or consolidations achieved expected savings for districts,
- connections between demographic trends, housing, segregation, and other local issues to resource disparities,
- how the State of California has started to weigh in on the issue of school closures, and
- the importance for districts of pairing a school closure process with an affirmative strategy to provide students that will be displaced with high-quality educational opportunities.
About Our Guest
Carrie Hahnel currently serves as a senior associate partner on the policy team at Bellwether, a national nonprofit. Previously, she focused on equitable school funding as an advocate at the Education Trust West, and as a policy director at the Opportunity Institute. She has worked extensively with the statewide research organization PACE. Her research has focused on school funding formulas, equity, tax policies and local budgeting practices and decisions, among other areas.
Key Resources
- Centering Equity in the School Closure Process in California (Report)
- Declining Enrollment, School Closures, and Equity Considerations (Policy brief and related PACE Webinar)
- Examining Racial (In)equity in School-Closure Patterns in California (Working Paper)
More Related to this Podcast
Insights & Impact
Resources
Browse our high-quality publications and resources designed to inform and engage professionals in a variety of fields including K–12 education, early childhood, and health and justice.
