The St. Louis Public School District isn’t the only district faced with declining enrollment and the need to close buildings. The Chicago Public Schools are in the same predicament. And it seems their protesters are just as fired up as the opponents of SLPS’ school closings:

Nearly two dozen school supporters camped out in tents overnight on the sidewalk in front of the district’s Loop headquarters. Hundreds of protesters chanted “save our schools” and carried makeshift coffins.

Looking through the Tribune articles on the topic, I don’t see any restrictions in Chicago about selling buildings to charter schools, though. Chicago already has dozens of charter school campuses, though, so it could be that they’re more accepted there.

Speaking of Chicago, maybe Steven Levitt will address school closings along with the other urban problems he’s going to write about in Superfreakonomics.