Class dismissed

摘要

The news that parents had been dreading came on March 21st. As many as 54 of Chicago's 681 schools have been earmarked for closure. Most of them are doing poorly, need costly repairs, or are under-subscribed: they are part of a system with more than 100,000 empty desks across the city. If the proposals are all approved by the Board of Education in May, the result will be one of the largest closures of schools ever seen in America. It will affect around 30,000 pupils.