Effects of Public School Closures on Crime: The Case of the 2013 Chicago Mass School Closure

Noli Brazil

doi:10.15195/v7.a6

Abstract

Public school closures are increasing in number and size in U.S. cities. In response, parents, teachers, and public school advocates argue that closures carry negative consequences for multiple institutions across a wide set of outcomes. One such institution is the local neighborhood, and a negative consequence that is frequently raised is increased crime. I test this claim by using the 2013 Chicago mass school closure as a case study. Rather than conceiving of a school closure as a binary event (closed or not closed) I break it out according to a school’s status after closure: vacant, repurposed, and merged with an existing school. I find that vacancy and repurposing into a nonschool are associated with decreased crime. In contrast, merging a closed school with an existing school is associated with increased crime. The vacancy and repurposing effects are spatiotemporally localized, concentrated in the 75-meter area surrounding the school and disappearing after a year, whereas the student merger effect persisted over time across larger spatial scales. My results suggest that the relationship between closure and neighborhood crime is not straightforward, varying by postclosure land use status and spatiotemporal factors.

Highlights

Public school closures are increasing in number and size in U.S cities
The increase associated with a merger in a welcoming school’s building is less than half (20 percent). These results show that school closures have much broader implications for the city than what has been previously suggested by prior closure discussions, which have largely focused on closed school neighborhoods
This article examines the consequences of public elementary school closures on neighborhood crime

Summary

Introduction

Public school closures are increasing in number and size in U.S cities. In response, parents, teachers, and public school advocates argue that closures carry negative consequences for multiple institutions across a wide set of outcomes. Using a monthly panel of crime counts between 2008 and 2018, I test the differential impact of school vacancy, repurposing, and merger on neighborhood crime as a consequence of Chicago’s mass closure. In either scenario (a welcoming school staying in place or relocating), school closures will have community-wide effects that go beyond the neighborhoods surrounding the closed schools.

Results

Conclusion