D.C. School Closings Begin

The process is painful but unavoidable.

THE FACTS about D.C. public schools, as reported by V. Dion Haynes, leave the school board and superintendent with little choice. In the past five years, enrollment has declined by 10,000 students, to 58,000. Half of the system's 147 schools are underenrolled. No school district can afford to maintain such a vast inventory of underused buildings, especially when resources are needed to improve student achievement. The school board, to its credit, recognized the need to downsize the system through closing and consolidating several of its public schools. This week's recommendations on school closures by D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey are the first steps in implementing the board's sensible policy.

If Mr. Janey's recommendations are adopted by the board on June 28 as scheduled, six schools could be closed by the start of school on Aug. 28. An additional nine schools would lease space to public charter schools or city agencies. By the superintendent's calculations, the savings could amount to at least $8.2 million annually. Redeployment of that savings to classrooms should, if carried out properly, give added support for academic programs.

Communities affected by the school closings have understandable anxieties. Those schools will be confronted with logistical and staff reassignment challenges; parents will have to study transfer options; and students will have to adjust to new surroundings. The timeline is short. The next several weeks undoubtedly will be filled with expressions of concern by distressed parents as well as unsettled faculty members and administrators. It will fall to Mr. Janey and school board members to help parents and others work through the changes. It is important that school officials get this right. This week's announced closings and mergers are supposed to be only the first phase in an admittedly painful process that could close as many as 30 schools by the fall of 2008. Questions of equity and favoritism inevitably arise when a system must be downsized. A well-thought-out process should anticipate and have credible answers to those questions.