With a $50-million deficit to cover the Kansas City School Board has voted 5-4 to close half of the city's 61 public schools. The controversial and heated debate over the issue ended with a close decision, but the Kansas City school closures are now inevitable.
Kansas City will close 29 of 61 public schools and educational facilities impacting 18,000 students and 3,000 staff members city-wide. The school closures will results in 700 job losses and layoffs, 285 of those being teachers. Called the "Right Size" plan, the layoffs will cut the Kansas City schools workforce by nearly 25%.
The massive restructuring plan has been met with outrage and despair by parents and teachers, but Kansas City School Superintendent John Covington is confident that the controversial decision is, "unquestionably the right thing to do."
Supporters of the school closures say that Kansas City schools have long been overstaffed and under-populated. The student populations in Kansas City public schools had significantly declined in recent years with occupancy rates between 40% and 60% of ideal capacity depending on the grade levels.
Read previous Examiner coverage of the Kansas City school closures.
"Kansas City Board of Education has voted to close almost half of the city’s public schools amidst a $50 million deficit. The so-called “Right-Size” plan would shutter twenty-eight of Kansas City’s sixty-one schools and cut 700 of 3,000 jobs, including 285 positions for teachers."
~ Democracy Now
Kansas City School Superintendent John Covington defends his "Right Size" plan on FOX
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