CHICAGO (CBS)– The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday voted to close 49 elementary schools, in what is believed to be the biggest single mass shutdown of schools in U.S. history.

Initially, a total of 53 elementary schools were on the chopping block, but four of them were spared.

RELATED: The List Of Closed Schools

The closings are part of a plan for the Chicago Public Schools to plug a $1 billion budget deficit. The schools to be shut down were identified by CPS as having too few students or failing to meet academic standards.

One of the school closings will be delayed for a year, another will be delayed for two years, and a school not on the closing list will be spared from a major staff overhaul known as a “turnaround.”

The closings represent 10 percent of the 472 elementary schools in the CPS system.



