Illustration via Getty Images
Imagine walking past your neighborhood school — the one where you made lifelong friends, played on the playground, and attended community events — only to see its doors locked, windows boarded up, and the buildings slowly withering away.
Public schools are more than just buildings. They are the spaces that strengthen communities across our differences and for the betterment of our future. Closing public schools harms communities and often disproportionately impacts those who are most vulnerable.
Unfortunately, Arizona is ripe for school closures due to decades of inadequate state funding, public dollars siphoned away by school vouchers and declining enrollment from gentrification, charters, birth rates and more. Last year, Paradise Valley Unified School District closed three schools and Roosevelt Elementary School District voted 4-1 to close five schools. Other districts, including Phoenix Elementary, Cave Creek Unified and Peoria Unified, are considering closing schools, and districts in Tempe and Mesa have made staffing cuts.
This didn’t happen overnight. Arizona’s school closures are largely the product of 30 years of aggressive so-called “school choice” policies that have created one of the most competitive and fragmented education systems in the nation. The state has embraced the country’s second largest share of charter schools, the allowance of statewide open-enrollment where any family can enroll in any school, and one of the largest universal voucher programs that allow families to use public funding to send their children to private schools.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The promise of these policies is that competition will improve education outcomes because parents will “vote with their feet.” Except private schools are able to pick and choose students, and most charter and private schools don’t provide transportation, so choice is often an illusion. Additionally, as research shows, school “choice does not necessitate competition,” parents don’t always select academically “better” schools, and having students change schools doesn’t boost student achievement in Arizona and has mixed academic results nationally, including a higher association with dropping out.
Meanwhile, Arizona ranks near dead last in the country in per pupil funding, leaving public schools with inadequate and inequitable funding to adapt and compete.
Some argue that closing schools allows districts to avoid financial deficits and increase student outcomes. But research highlights that school closures often result in more declining enrollment, chronic absenteeism and poorer student outcomes. That’s because schools get consolidated, and many families do not want to have their kids bussed farther away or enroll their children in larger schools. They’re right not to: Evidence shows larger schools and class sizes are associated with negative academic results.
Decreasing enrollment, plus costs like maintaining vacant buildings and transportation, means less funding. It’s a downward cycle.
When done well, school districts engage in honest and transparent dialogue about the potential of closing schools — but in some areas, that is not happening. At a recent “Reimagine Phoenix #1” meeting, which I attended as a parent, school closures weren’t even mentioned explicitly. Instead, the session — facilitated by an architecture firm, held on a Monday from 4 to 6 p.m. and attended by mostly district staff and only about four parents — focused on showcasing new programs and building designs.
Similarly, Roosevelt’s “Reinventing Roosevelt” initiative seemed to do little to clearly communicate its connection to school closures. Many community members didn’t realize closures were on the table until just weeks before the school board voted. Meetings were held at inconvenient times and required live attendance. Videos of these forums, or prior school board meetings, were not published for later viewing. This makes it hard for working parents like me, who are juggling dinner, extracurriculars, homework, and bedtime, to participate.
What can be done?
Communities must stay informed, demand transparency, ask critical questions about budgets and enrollment, and advocate for an increase in education funding. School leaders should be transparent, conduct equity audits and learn why families are leaving. Exit and entry surveys, for instance, can reveal concerns about school safety or overcrowding — issues that, if addressed, might help reverse enrollment declines.
By listening to its community, one district boosted enrollment after a decade of decreased enrollment. A school board member shared with me that, through exit surveys, they learned families wanted safer schools and smaller classes. They invested in school ambassadors, introduced special programs and launched an online marketing campaign. The result: an increase of over 400 students enrolled this year.
Public schools connect our communities and provide a foundation for our future. We cannot just stand by and watch them wither away.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
