Chicago closed 50 schools in 2013, the largest mass closure in the country, and the neighborhoods that lost them were largely Black. Thirteen years later, candidates for the city’s first fully elected school board are saying out loud that closures are possible again.
Voters choose a board president and district representatives on Nov. 3. The winners take their seats in January 2027, and a moratorium on closures expires at the end of this school year, as WBEZ and WTTW have reported. Enrollment has fallen by 76,000 students over the past decade, Chalkbeat Chicago reports. More than 140 of the district’s roughly 500 schools use less than half their space, and 43 operate at under a third of capacity. Most of those buildings sit in six of the 20 board districts.
The candidates split. Pastor Michael Neal, running in District 6b, supports mergers as a “true last resort” with community engagement, arguing that severely under-enrolled schools cannot offer “challenging classes, sports teams, school plays.” Brittany Kimble, also in 6b, would back closures on the same terms. Hilario Dominguez, the Chicago Teachers Union-backed candidate for board president, calls “underutilized” “a term thrown around to undermine the district.” All four candidates in West Side districts 5a and 5b oppose closing schools.
Opponents point to what the last round left behind. Chicago’s own chief executive, Pedro Martinez, has said the cost of closing schools in lost trust outweighs any benefit, as NPR reported in 2023. That reporting found that displaced students did not graduate at higher rates than peers at comparable schools that stayed open. Majority-Black census tracts that lost a school shed 9.2% of their residents between 2013 and 2018, against 3.2% in Black neighborhoods where schools stayed open. A decade on, 26 of the 50 buildings were still vacant.
Residents and candidates opposed to closures argue that shutting schools destabilizes predominantly Black neighborhoods, disrupts students academically and raises the risk of gun violence. Some propose filling empty space with health clinics, food pantries and grocery stores instead.
LaPamela Williams, another candidate, says she would consider opening more charter schools rather than closing buildings.
The district is also trying to close a $732.5 million budget deficit with job cuts and larger class sizes this school year, WBEZ reported. Whoever wins on Nov. 3 inherits that deficit and the empty buildings together.
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