The neighborhood ethnoracial and socioeconomic context of urban public school closures in the United States
Public school closures are increasing in number and size in U.S. cities. This increase has led to contentious debates between school district officials who focus on cost efficiency and academic performance, and teachers, families, and public school advocates who argue that closing public schools negatively affects multiple institutions and actors. One such institution is the neighborhood. Despite the wide-ranging implications of urban public school closures, few studies have quantitatively examined where closures occur and their consequences on the neighborhoods they serve. In this project, Brazil will construct the first longitudinal database of public school closures in the 100 largest urban school districts in the United States to examine the association between school closure and neighborhood ethnoracial and socioeconomic characteristics. Brazil will then investigate the effects of public school closures on an outcome frequently raised in school closure debates: neighborhood crime.