A community-led campaign successfully prevented planned school closures in Seattle, demonstrating the power of collective action in safeguarding public education.
A grassroots campaign by parents, caregivers, educators, students and community members blocked planned school closures in Seattle after public meetings and rallies like this one, which took place at the Seattle School District headquarters in the fall of 2024. Yet in a time when budget cuts threaten public education nationwide, Seattle organizers have shown that communities can fight back — and win.
The school district superintendent said he “no longer saw a pathway for this approach,” and emphasized the district’s commitment to the “needs and well-being of our students, families, and community.” But make no mistake: this decision wasn’t handed down from above. It was won through a relentless, grassroots campaign by parents, caregivers, educators, students and community members who refused to let our children bear the brunt of budget shortfalls.budget shortfall. They clearly hadn’t learned the lesson from the last disastrous round of school closures. In 2009, SPS hastily closed— despite the massive outcry from communities — just as a surge of enrollment entered the district. Back then, the district was forced to reopen schools — three of which had just been closed. This year, Seattle Public Schools projected a loss of 600 students, only to see 206, and yet they were still planning to charge ahead with school closures. The district’s inability to learn from its own history only strengthened our resolve to stop this from happening again. As frustrating as the district’s lack of appreciation for the costly impact of previous rounds of school closures was, the real outrage is the fact that schools in a city as wealthy as Seattle have such a massive budget shortfal
School Closures Seattle Public Schools Grassroots Campaign Community Activism Budget Shortfall
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