America
Zombie Schools Haunt Blue Cities
A
significant but unknown number of public schools across the U.S., particularly in big cities, have lost so
many students in the last half-decade that many of their classrooms sit empty. Gone is the loud clatter of students
bursting through crowded hallways and slamming lockers. The harm from these half-empty
schools is inflicted directly on all stu- dents in a district. Without enough per-pupil state funding to cover their costs, they require financial subsidies to remain open, forcing district-wide cutbacks in academic programs. “I visited one school that takes up
an entire city block but there were only five classrooms used, plus a library, a computer room, and an afterschool
As parents have fled, half-empty classrooms leave districts in a financial pinch. BY VINCE BIELSKI
room,” said Sam Davis, a member of the Board of Education in Oakland, California. Nothing in public education is
more controversial and difficult than closing a neighborhood school. The protests that recently flared up in blue cities like Oakland and Denver over proposals to shut low-enrollment schools, which also tend to be the worst academic performers in dis- tricts, are just a prelude of the reckon- ing to come. During the COVID-19 pandem-
ic, many urban districts suffered a major exodus of students, with dou- ble-digit losses in New York City and Los Angeles. Many of these districts have tem-
porarily sidestepped the tempest of shutting schools because Congress provided them with a historic windfall
of pandemic-related funding and wide latitude in spending it, said George- town Professor Marguerite Roza, who directs the Edunomics Lab. But the $190 billion lifeline — called
the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund — ends in September. So, school leaders are facing mount-
ing pressure to shrink their oversized districts, setting up the next battle- ground over public schools. “Many districts have too many
schools, not enough kids, and are propping them up with federal relief funds,” Roza said. Plans to close schools that
are almost empty shells are being derailed by a formidable coalition of local advocates, including parents, teachers unions, and racial justice advocates. — RealClearInvestigations
Mike Rowe: Hard Leſt Runs Elite Campuses
But you won’t see trade schools and community colleges erupting in violence.
BY SALENA ZITO T
v host mike rowe says that if people are shocked by the antisemitism among elite college students and
their clear lack of understanding of history, they haven’t been paying attention to the ethos of these universities. For decades, he says, higher education
has been trending not liberal but radically left.
Their data showed it was in 2001 that fac- ROWE
ulty majorities went from liberal to hard left and now are nearing a supermajority in the academic world.
It is not lost on Rowe that the two places of higher edu-
cation where you don’t see campuses erupting in violence and destroying the safety of Jewish students are trade
24 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2024
schools and community colleges. “These schools simply don’t go there,” he said of the nationwide facilities whose certificate programs and two- year degrees are designed around filling this country’s skills gap.
Department of Education data shows there are nearly
4,000 colleges and universities across this country with 40% of their students holding some type of job while attending school. In contrast, there are just over 1,000 community colleg-
es and 7,407 trade and technical schools with 80% of those students employed while attending school in the former. Rowe said that when the protests at the elite universi-
ties started to unfold after the Oct. 7 massacre, he won- dered what seemed so familiar. “And the answer isn’t because it’s familiar in terms of
bad behavior. It was familiar because it’s another thing that never happens at schools where people go to learn a skill,” he said.
CLASSROOM/LOPOLO/SHUTTERSTOCK / ROWE/AP IMAGES
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