An Analysis of the Effects of School Closings and Openings on Crime in Chicago

Abstract

In 2013, the Chicago Public School District closed almost 50 underutilized elementary schools and opened over 40 new schools of which over 30 were new charter schools that were mostly high schools. Two key issues continue to plague Chicago: access to high quality public schools and crime. These shocks to public schools are occurring in most major cities across the United States and it is essential for there to be more research on the effects of school changes on neighborhoods and communities. I analyze the effect of new school openings and school closures, beyond the classroom, on crime in Chicago community areas. The crime categories that I analyze are homicides, violent crime, index crime, and non-index crime and I use quarterly data on crime, changes in schools, and demographic data for Chicago from 2010-2016.