This chapter examines the politics of school closure, which represents the “third-rail” in education. I argue that school closures closely follow a “bootleggers and Baptists” model of politics. Bootleggers provide the behind-the-scenes financial and organizational resources to shape policy, while the Baptists serve as the movement’s more sympathetic and earnest public face. In the context of schools, the bootleggers are school employees who worry how school closures will affect their jobs, while the Baptists are local community members who want to keep their neighborhood schools open. A large-N quantitative analysis examines both the causes and consequences of closure. I find that: (1) although closures appear to disproportionately affect communities of color, the disparities are explained by school enrollment patterns and differences in achievement that are correlated with the racial composition of students; (2) on average, building closures neither improve nor reduce average student performance on math or ELA exams in elementary and middle school grades; and (3) school closures modestly accelerate student enrollment losses and significantly decrease teacher employment.