School closings do not remove the many hurdles in providing all Chicago students with a quality education. However, inaction is not an alternative, either: Chicago Public School administrators are right to scrutinize the capacity issue of 500,000 seats for 400,000 students, especially in a climate as cash-strapped as Chicago’s. But their school utilization formulas do not tell us about the broader, human implications of shuttered schools: the thousands of displaced students entering new classrooms, disrupting—through no fault of their own—the often fragile cultures at the schools that will receive them, the families scrambling to transport their children to new classrooms, the 1,500 preschool slots housed in buildings that are scheduled to be shuttered.

It is evident that this process will be carried out with great sacrifice; as such, it is imperative that CPS make good on its promise to reinvest in neighborhood schools. As education advocates, the Latino Policy Forum will both partner with CPS and foster accountability from CPS to make the promise of quality education a reality for all Chicago students. We call for schools and families in all communities to work together to achieve the strong academic outcomes we all want for all of our children. The future of Chicago depends on the success of all its students.