St. Louis Public Schools was one of America’s largest school systems in the late-1960s, educating 115,000 students at its peak. But at the beginning of the 2026–27 academic year, after decades of erosion and poor performance, that number fell below 17,000.
Explanations for the swoon are diverse and mostly dispiriting, including persistently high crime rates and a weakened local economy that has led several generations of families to leave town. A recent leadership carousel that saw four different superintendents in just over three years hasn’t helped matters. Whatever the cause, however, city leaders now face the question of what to do about a district reduced to approximately 15 percent of its former size.
Last month, Superintendent Myra Berry recommended an answer that some have long seen as inevitable: closing 14 under-enrolled schools by next fall, repurposing the buildings, and distributing their students to nearby alternatives. In addition to saving an estimated $24 million, the plan would allow Berry and her team to reduce logistical and maintenance demands to a more manageable scale .
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St. Louis Schools Face One of the Steepest Post-Pandemic Climbs Anywhere
The mutually reinforcing dynamics of academic dysfunction and plummeting head counts are essentially unique to St. Louis; even its sister metropolis, Kansas City, has seen steady growth in its surrounding area over the last few decades. But total enrollment across Missouri schools undeniably fell over the last quarter-century, a gradual slide that has gained momentum since the COVID-19 pandemic. And with birthrates falling below the replacement level, as in other states, most local leaders will have to rely on an aging tax base to pay for schools educating fewer and fewer children…