Philadelphia's school district, with 137,000 students, voted in March to close 23 schools, according to our sister station WPVI.
Cleveland closed 16 schools in 2010, according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. The district has 55,000 students. It is also the district Barbara Byrd-Bennett led between 1998-2006, according to her biography.
Detroit, between 2009-2010, closed 59 schools, not all at once, under the leadership of Robert Bobb, Emergency Financial manager of Detroit Public Schools, according to the Washington Post. The district has 122,000 students. Byrd-Bennett also worked for that office between 2009-2011, according to her biography.
From 2009 to present, the above districts, with a combined enrollment of approximately 314,000 students, closed or are closing a total of 98 schools.
Chicago Public Schools includes 681 schools for the '12-'13 school year. A closure of 50 would amount to the 7-percent decrease in the total number of schools.
In New York City, the largest school district in the country, 22 schools were voted to close by the city's educational board in March. NYC officials say 142 schools have been shut down or approved for phase-out since 2002 when Mayor Michael Bloomberg came to office, WABC-TV reported. The district serves about 1.1 million students in more than 1,700 schools, the district website says.
The Los Angeles Unified School District includes 1,278 schools, with no anticipated closures for the '13-'14 school year, according the LAUSD website.
