US school closures reached a post-pandemic high last year, with 1,156 schools shut as falling enrollment and tight budgets pushed districts to cut costs, according to ABC News US. Vallejo, California, is one of the districts making cuts.
The 1,156 figure comes from an analysis of federal data by Big Local News at Stanford University, according to ABC News US. It is the highest number of closures since the pandemic.
Nationwide, public school enrollment fell by more than 1.4 million students, roughly 3%, between fall 2019 and 2024, according to ABC News US. The total number of schools has declined only to about pre-pandemic levels, which suggests closures are lagging behind enrollment declines, according to researchers Thomas Dee and Jaymes Pyne.
Bellwether and WestEd estimated that declining enrollment could cause schools to lose $11.5 billion in state revenue annually by 2030-2031, according to ABC News US. That projection is an estimate, and no official response to it is included in the available reporting.
In Vallejo, City Unified has closed five campuses since 2025, a quarter of its schools, according to ABC News US. The district has also placed up to a third of its staff positions on the chopping block to plug a $36 million deficit.
The district’s enrollment fell from nearly 18,000 in fall 2006 to about 9,300, according to the district, as reported by ABC News US. Vallejo superintendent Rubén Aurelio said closures and cuts are necessary to "right-size" a district built for far more students. The district previously used COVID-19 relief money to pay staff salaries, and those salaries ended in early 2025.
Research cited in the story indicates that closures rarely produce the financial relief districts hope for. Busing, severance for laid-off staff and security for empty buildings often consume the savings, according to the reporting.
Vallejo’s board and district leaders face further cuts and possibly more closures as enrollment continues to fall. Experts expect little state or federal money to offset the losses.
The available reporting comes from a single outlet, ABC News US, which carries AP-partnered reporting, and no independent source confirms the figures. The article text is also cut off, so the number of schools closed in Vallejo’s second round and the outcome of the board’s selection, which was due by December 2025, are not included. No response from federal or state education officials is included either.
Sources
This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.