Puerto Rico, reported daily.
Sunday, October 11, 2026 · UTC
La Isla Que VieneOpinionCommentary, not the record

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.

Columnist, La Isla Que Viene
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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.