Closing of Nearly Half of Kansas City Public Schools

Unfortunately, this is an all too common occurrence in American urban schools. Many American city school districts routinely held over 100,000 students, and subsequently had the facilities to house that enrollment. For many of those districts, all too often, enrollment decline was marked by the onset of forced desegregation required by the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education landmark decision. It happened in cities like Boston, Cleveland, Columbus and Kansas City. As families fled the urban districts, suburban, private and charter school enrollment has soared.

Without question, no one wants to close schools. Schools, along with churches, are a major piece of identification for communities. Schools are what connects people to their community. In barber shops, stoops and some times even unsavory places, there are constant tales of times of past glory connected to school. When schools close, for many communities and individuals, the fear is that their identity will be lost as well.

However, as enrollment declined in many cities, so did the revenue associated with enrollment. In Ohio, for example, each student is worth approximately $6000 in state funding. Therefore, for a big urban district, the loss of even 1000 students, means a reduction of $6 million dollars in state funding. Many urban districts are half or even less than half of what they once were, so the financial impact of the declining enrollment is devastating. Like state governments, schools cannot legally operate in a deficit, so as enrollment declines, unfortunately facilities must close and teachers must be reduced. Schools are a people business, whereas up to 80% of the expenditures of most school districts are personnel related paying for salaries and benefit packages. Facility maintenance is usually the next largest expense. Couple that with many urban school houses being older, less capable of handling modern technology and are less than energy efficient, operating too many buildings become an irresponsible drain on hardworking tax payer dollars.

Most citizens value teachers and understand the incredibly tough task they have. Most educators had a positive experience in schools, which was an influence for them to go into the profession. Most people also understand the impact schools have on the community. However, more than ever, it is important that public officials are responsible and efficient in the spending of taxpayer dollars. Without question, it breaks the heart of the superintendent and the Board of Education in Kansas City to close that many schools. In fact, it was incredibly irresponsible for former superintendents NOT to have gradually and systematically close schools as enrollment declined. However it was the right thing to do and the superintendent and Board should be applauded for their courage to do the right thing in the face of such emotional opposition.