WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of schools in the nation’s largest cities are sitting empty as education officials struggle to sell these potentially valuable properties that are a drain on school district finances, according to a study released Monday.

In the dozen cities the Pew Charitable Trusts reviewed, some 327 schools were sitting idle last year and for sale. That means those properties — typically nestled in residential neighborhoods — are costing districts that still have to keep them secure, insured and heated. Meanwhile, the financially strapped districts are not collecting taxes on some prime real estate to fund the schools that do survive.