The Philadelphia Faculty Board voted in Might 2026 to near 17 of its 218 colleges. Seven are basic colleges, 5 are heart colleges and 5 are top colleges. Moreover, 3 different top colleges will transfer into present colleges and percentage constructions.
I’m an academic anthropologist and co-author of “Schools for Sale,” a imminent ebook that examines what took place all through Philly’s final wave of mass college closures, when the district closed 30 of its 249 public colleges between June 2012 and June 2013.
My co-authors and I are continuously requested through electorate, lecturers and stakeholders whether or not the Faculty District of Philadelphia’s said objectives for closures – value financial savings and reinvestment in present colleges – are achievable. Other folks additionally wish to know whether or not the present deliberate closures are very similar to or other from 2013.
The Philadelphia Faculty District plans to near 17 colleges over the following 12 months to assist cope with its $300 million finances shortfall. Native colleges and communities say they’ve been omitted of the making plans procedure.
AP Photograph/Matt Rourke
Why colleges closed in 2013
The wave of public college closures 13 years in the past in Philadelphia additionally swept different primary American towns, together with Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. Those towns, like Philadelphia, determined to near conventional community colleges with a view to consolidate underused constructions because the collection of scholars enrolled of their districts dwindled.
In 2013, Philadelphia’s public colleges had been grappling with more or less 70,000 empty seats, in a district designed for 195,000 scholars.
This used to be the cumulative results of a decade of federal and state insurance policies, together with No Kid Left At the back of, handed in 2001, and Race to the Most sensible, in 2009. Each insurance policies tied college investment to standardized check efficiency, which means that faculties that failed to satisfy trying out benchmarks had been really helpful for closure and constitution conversion. Those insurance policies fueled fast constitution college growth in Philadelphia and nationally.
Between 1999 and 2014, roughly 80 constitution colleges opened within the town. The percentage of Philadelphia scholars enrolled in charters leaped from 2% to 36%, and investment to beef up them adopted the similar trail.
On the identical time, the district confronted mounting monetary pressures after federal stimulus finances that town won following the 2008 recession expired. In the meantime, the prices of keeping up a parallel constitution sector persisted to develop.
A state regulation handed in 1997 calls for all Pennsylvania districts to remit 70% of per-pupil investment to the constitution each and every kid attends as an alternative of a public college. This drove up bills to constitution colleges through greater than 3,000% from 1999 to 2014 and diverted finances clear of district colleges that also had to deal with mounted prices, comparable to utilities, staffing and construction enhancements.
Through early 2012, the district confronted a US$300 million finances deficit. The district laid off greater than 300 lecturers and beef up team of workers the next 12 months.
The district employed massive consulting corporations from out of state in 2010 and once more in 2012 to guage which colleges would meet the standards for closure. The experts thought to be construction high quality, construction use and educational efficiency. They even created a method to measure college protection in keeping with suspensions and violent incidents. Something they didn’t do used to be seek advice from the universities or communities. In the end, they indexed 60 possible colleges for closure.
This quantity narrowed to 30 after rounds of group conferences and a vote through the Faculty Reform Fee, which on the time used to be a partly state-appointed, partly mayoral-appointed board.
Six public colleges shuttered in June 2012 and any other 24 in June 2013. The closures displaced just about 10,000 scholars. Many went directly to a brand new public college assigned to them; others went to charters or left the district altogether.
Former Massachusetts governor and Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney visits the Common Bluford Constitution Faculty in Philadelphia in Might 2012 to advertise his federal college selection plan.
Mario Tama by the use of Getty Photographs
Why colleges are final in 2026
Now, Philadelphia – at the side of different towns, together with Baltimore, St. Louis, Houston and Atlanta – is making plans a brand new wave of college closures.
As in 2013, officers cite underutilized area and the purpose of redirecting financial savings from closures into long-deferred capital enhancements for the district’s growing older amenities. The typical college construction in Philadelphia is 75 years previous.
Declining enrollment – there are roughly 20,000 fewer scholars in district-run colleges than a decade in the past – drives those vacancies, however the underlying dynamics of enrollment have additionally shifted.
Enrollment at in-person constitution colleges stays solid, having larger simply 3% between 2017 and 2022. Then again, enrollment at cyber constitution colleges, the place scholars attend categories nearly, greater than doubled over the similar length, thank you partly to the pandemic. Cyber charters now serve about 13,400 scholars districtwide.
A decline in enrollment at Philadelphia public colleges displays broader nationwide traits. Those come with smaller kindergarten cohorts, declining start charges, extra other people transferring out of towns post-pandemic and up to date federal immigration restrictions that experience diminished the collection of immigrant youngsters enrolling in public colleges national.
Overstated financial savings, still-vacant constructions
In 2013, The Faculty District of Philadelphia projected $28 million in value financial savings from its closure plan. Then again, a document launched later that 12 months from town controller predicted that the projected financial savings had been overstated within the 2012 amenities plan and, in observe, didn’t materialize.
The document pointed to underestimated prices related to scholars transferring to new colleges, the continuing bills of keeping up vacant homes and the rather modest scale of the projected $28 million financial savings within the context of a more or less $300 million annual deficit.
Attendance charges and educational efficiency dropped each for college students who transitioned from closed colleges in addition to for college students on the receiving colleges.
After the 30 colleges closed, there used to be now not a long-term amenities making plans procedure to meaningfully spend money on the college constructions that remained open. This loss of making plans exacerbated most of the very stipulations the present plan now seeks to deal with, a mirrored image of each loss of finances to deal with colleges but in addition a loss of procedure through district amenities’ managers to meaningfully cope with construction stipulations after the 2013 closures.
My colleagues and I decided that just about 30% of the Philadelphia colleges that closed in 2013 have remained vacant or unsold within the 13 years since. Best 28% had been repurposed for public instructional use. The remaining had been transformed into constitution colleges, demolished for college construction or redeveloped as market-rate housing.
In the meantime, cyber charters larger their earnings through $425 million and reserves to hide sudden bills through 144% between 2020 and 2023, with beef up from college selection advocates comparable to cyber constitution leaders and advocacy organizations.
A efficiency audit through the Pennsylvania auditor common in February 2025 raised considerations about cyber constitution directors’ possible misuse of those finances, together with spending on bonuses for team of workers and management, present playing cards for donors, and actual property investments that didn’t pertain to instructional functions.
Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia, a constitution heart college and highschool, occupies the previous Southwest Philadelphia Academy for Boys.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Submit by the use of Getty Photographs
Readability and duty construct group accept as true with
We predict that outsourcing closure making plans to experts – as took place in Philadelphia in 2013 and is going on once more in 2026 – whilst providing restricted alternatives for significant engagement past “community updates” that didn’t combine public comments, undermines folks’ and communities’ accept as true with within the public training device.
In 2013 there used to be a loss of readability from district officers across the supposed results of the college closures. The huge switch of public finances to extra privatized training choices comparable to charters came about in spite of restricted proof of stepped forward efficiency through charters, selective enrollment insurance policies and ongoing considerations about their use of public finances. This presentations that susceptible oversight permits issues comparable to empty seats and deficient construction stipulations to persist. On the identical time, scholars are being moved right into a separate constitution device that the district will pay for, whilst community colleges obtain much less investment and turn out to be much more likely to near.
These days, extra analysis helps selection approaches to final and promoting colleges. Those come with repurposing closed colleges for group and academic functions whilst protecting public possession of the constructions. A reckoning with the growth of each in-person and cyber charters has additionally been referred to as for not too long ago through The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board.
Ongoing amenities grasp making plans that specializes in capital investments and integrates group concepts into the way forward for present constructions can decrease disruptions and construct accept as true with with communities affected. But in spite of the luck of those choices in different towns, the present college closure procedure in Philadelphia continues to depend on a lot of the mistaken common sense of 2013.
