Schools Are Closing More Quickly in U.S.

Minutes before first bell, Penny Núñez-Brandão scanned the crowd outside Glen Cove Elementary School, looking for familiar faces.

"I don't see any," the fifth grader told her mom one morning in August. "None of my friends are coming."

The start of a new school year can be nerve-wracking under any circumstances. But for Penny and thousands of students across the U.S., this academic year brought the added difficulty of adjusting to an entirely new school after their previous ones shuttered. As U.S. birth rates continue a multidecade slide and state and federal education funding dries up, an increasing number of cash-strapped school districts around the country have resorted to closing campuses to save money.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Associated Press.