Schools for Sale: Disinvestment, Dispossession, and School Building Reuse in Philadelphia

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Julia McWilliams Ariel H. Bierbaum

Schools for Sale

Name: Schools for Sale
Price: 41.95 AUD
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ISBN: 9780226850108

Disinvestment, Dispossession, and School Building Reuse in Philadelphia

Julia McWilliams, Ariel H. Bierbaum, Amy J. Bach , Elaine Simon

$41.95

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

University of Chicago Press
26 June 2026

Art & design styles: Modernist design & Bauhaus; History of architecture; Urban communities

A surprising look at what happens to the actual school buildings in the wake of school closures.

School districts across the United States have closed thousands of schools since 2000 to cope with chronic underfunding and budget crises, declining enrollment, and poorly maintained buildings. Our knowledge about school closures has focused on battles over closure decision-making and the impacts of closing schools on communities of color in the immediate aftermath of these decisions. But what of the large, sometimes magisterial, formerly public spaces once at the center of community life? How do these now vacant buildings change daily life in the surrounding neighborhood?

In Schools for Sale, Julia McWilliams, Ariel H. Bierbaum, Amy J. Bach, and Elaine Simon examine how school closures change the spatial and social arrangements of neighborhoods. Following a series of school closures in Philadelphia, the authors draw from research in urban studies, education, planning, and geography to explain how race, place, and capital merge to influence the trajectory of closed schools in Black and Brown communities and their surrounding neighborhoods. Some closed schools are repurposed as charter schools, upending the role those buildings have historically played in bringing communities together. Other buildings are sold for commercial development, caught up in cycles of gentrification even as developers foster programs to support community members. Others are left vacant or are demolished in the heart of their neighborhoods, decisions that reflect not only disinvestment in Black communities but the sobering reality of environmental racism.

Drawing needed attention to one of the significant consequences of school closures, Schools for Sale imparts a deeper understanding of the connections between place, race, and education amid broader urban transformations, prompting us to consider how school districts can work toward a new vision for public education and community development.

By: Julia McWilliams, Ariel H. Bierbaum, Amy J. Bach, Elaine Simon
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 399g
ISBN: 9780226850108
ISBN 10: 0226850102
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 26 June 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Julia McWilliams is the codirector and faculty member of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Compete or Close: Traditional Neighborhood Schools under Pressure. Ariel H. Bierbaum is associate professor of urban studies and planning at the University of Maryland. Amy J. Bach is associate professor of literacy/biliteracy studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. Elaine Simon is an urban anthropologist, retired as codirector of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Reviews for Schools for Sale: Disinvestment, Dispossession, and School Building Reuse in Philadelphia

Schools for Sale uses an innovative blend of methods—photographic essays and case studies—to tell a powerful story of what happens to schools after they have been closed. The book illuminates the role of institutional racism in shaping the past, present, and future of Philadelphia neighborhoods, revealing how decades of systemic disinvestment in public education undermined essential community institutions. The story is a sobering one, but the authors’ focus on six schools, each with a different trajectory, allows for a sophisticated analysis of both the harms done to communities by school closings and the potential for reclaiming schools as public goods. -- Maia Cucchiara, Temple University