265 schools shut, and the buses stopped running. Puerto Rico built for children who left.
Public and private enrollment has dropped 44% since 2006, and the closures fall hardest on rural towns that lost their bus routes with their classrooms.
More than 600 public schools on the island have closed in the past decade, and the Hechinger Report ties the closures to a mass exodus of residents and to crippling debt.[1][2] I have written this week about the missing children and the net migration loss. Today I want the reader to see what the empty buildings cost the towns that keep them.