Framing of Black and Latinx School Closure in Redeveloping Hartford, Connecticut

In January 2018, the mayoral-controlled Hartford Board of Education voted to officially close four mostly Black and Latinx schools as part of a district reorganization for “excellence.” This decision followed a decade of market-oriented reforms of school choice and closure promoted as a reform lever to improve academic achievement in a district under a school desegregation order and settlement. As part of a broader case study, this article draws on framing theory and the concept of accumulation by dispossession in order to compare stakeholder responses to the proposed closure of two schools in Hartford, Connecticut, at a moment of shifting public funds towards urban redevelopment. This article argues that stakeholders’ framing of responses connected to the form of school closure and their frame resonance, or effectiveness to connect with each other and the audience, related to status and identity in the district. This study supports the need for deeper understanding of how families, educators, and community partners experience school closures in urban contexts and how these groups provide alternatives to permanent school closure. The study also notes a particular form of school closure: desegregation by dispossession.