“Despite the academic and financial incentives for shutting underperforming schools, the district has been treading lightly on closings in recent years, for several reasons. In some neighborhoods, a school, however poor its performance, is the last remaining functional community institution, and many residents have emotional ties to it. In others, students shifted from a closed school may have to cross rival gang territories to get to their new one, and, finally, most displaced students have wound up at another poorly performing school, according to a study by the consortium”

Sound familiar?