It will lower property values in neighborhoods which are losing schools, burdening even adults without kids. The problem, school officials tell us, is a budget shortfall. No question the school district is short on cash, and something must give. The bills must be paid, and expenses brought in line with revenue. It's possible, after close scrutiny and exhaustive attempts at creative financing that we will have no option but to close schools.
Problem is, nothing like that has been done.
The district's proposal for saving money is the crudest, bluntest, meanest, least innovative solution imaginable. School district professionals recommended school closure and consolidation to the school board without pause. They uttered nothing about shrinking their own internal bureaucracy, which exists only to educate kids and keep schools running. Not a word about cutting salaries, or having district employees pay some of the increased cost for their health benefits, like most corporate employees are having to do these days. Instead, district employees set up a fortress around their own careers, salaries, benefits and departmental budgets.