More communities are closing schools. The cuts may not be enough

VALLEJO, Calif. — Minutes before first bell, Penny Núñez-Brandão scanned the crowd outside Glen Cove Elementary School, looking for familiar faces. “I don’t see any,” the fifth grader told her mom one morning this August. “None of my friends are coming.” The start of a new school year can be nerve-racking under any circumstances. But for Penny and thousands of students across the U.S., this academic year brought the added difficulty of adjusting to an entirely new school after their previous one shuttered. As U.S. birth rates continue a multi-decade slide and state and federal education funding dries up, an increasing number of cash-strapped school districts around the country have resorted to closing campuses to save money. A total of 1,156 schools closed during the last academic year — the highest number since the pandemic, according to an analysis of federal data by Big Local News at Stanford University.

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