Puerto Rico to close 184 public schools amid crisis
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico is closing 184 public schools in a move expected to save millions of dollars amid a deep economic crisis that has sparked an exodus to the U.S. mainland in the past decade, officials said Friday.
An estimated 27,000 students will be moved elsewhere when their schools close at the end of May, Education Department spokeswoman Yolanda Rosaly told The Associated Press.
No further details were immediately available. Rosaly said Education Secretary Julia Keleher would provide more details soon.
The announcement about the schools’ closure was just latest news this week that saw the U.S. territory take an unprecedented step into federal court to restructure a portion of its $73 billion debt.
Many economists had anticipated the island’s move Wednesday to seek a bankruptcy-like process amid a 10-year recession, but it is impossible to predict what lies ahead.
The news about the school closures raised concerns it could speed up the ongoing exodus from the island. Nearly 450,000 people over the last decade have already left for Florida and other parts of the U.S. mainland to flee the worsening economic crisis.
Puerto Ricans have been increasingly hit with new taxes, higher utility rates and cuts to public employee benefits, among other things. Many people have also struggled to find jobs on an island of 3.4 million people with an unemployment rate that has hovered around 12 percent.