An architectural consulting firm has proposed that the St. Louis Public School system should close half of its schools because of continuing declining enrollment and the costs necessary to maintain aging buildings that were build to support three times the number of students enrolled now.
At the same time, a family of Syrian refugees who were set to move to St. Louis in February have been blocked due to Trump’s executive order suspending refugee resettlement.
St. Louis has been a location for significant refugee resettlement in the past. After the Bosnian War, refugees came to St. Louis, creating a large successful community that in the mid-2010’s was the largest Bosnian community outside of Bosnia. There’s been a lot of flight to the suburbs since then, but the resettlement of refugees has been an overall benefit to the community.
St. Louis has the space. St. Louis needs people living in the city. Many in the city would love to support communities of refugees. They may not build a permanent community, but it would give the city more time to handle the problem of too much infrastructure and not enough residents without tearing everything down.
This country can support refugees, and everyone can benefit. It’s incredibly short-sighted that we don’t.