Sadly, Americans have become used to hearing stories of outrageously irresponsible, wasteful government projects (for example, see our recent posts, here and here). But the unveiling of the country’s most expensive public school – in California — has caused some jaws to drop.
Los Angeles County’s Robert F. Kennedy Community School, set to open next month, will serve 4,200 students and cost $578 million to build—that’s more than China spent on its Olympic Stadium. The school features marble memorials, murals, and a posh swimming pool. And this is just the latest, and most expensive, of L.A.’s public schools: in 2009, L.A. opened a $232-million Visual and Performing Arts High School; in 2008, it opened the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, named for a former Member of Congress, which cost a cool $377 million.
This year, the Los Angeles school district confronts a $640 million shortfall. Three thousand teachers have been laid off in the past two years, and the district has toyed with the idea of cutting days from the school year to cut costs. So how do political leaders justify spending hundreds of millions on ultra-extravagant school buildings when they face this kind of budget crunch?
L.A. officials point out that plans for these buildings were made before the recent economic crisis. But taxpayers should still be outraged. Regardless of how flush the district believed it might be, a $578 million school shows politicians with misplaced priorities. Too many California students don’t receive a basic education from their public school. In fact, researchers estimate that less than half of students in Los Angeles even graduate on time. How will a state-of-the-art swimming pool or a fancy auditorium help children learn reading, writing, and mathematics?
This kind of wasteful spending isn’t just outrageous in an era of high unemployment and budget deficit, it’s outrageous at any time.
this type of low level corruption is sweeping the nation. there is no one to govern our school systems. they do things like this, then try to pass levy’s and make the taxpayer cover the costs. if the levy doesn’t pass they strong-arm the taxpayers by: cutting out busing, and all extracurricular activities for the kids. so of course the levy passes. meanwhile superintendents and others are making outrageous amounts of money. the state doesn’t seem to care. the taxpayer is being bled dry. i wonder when we are going to wake up and start fighting all of the corrupt governments back. if we would all stay home for just one single day, and stop these wheels from spinning. get their attention, and tell them we aren’t going to take it anymore. that we are the ones that make this world go around.
This was on the national news. What has happened to common sense? The superintendent of the schools stated it was how the money was budgeted. Budgets are not set in stone. Our government proves that point everyday.
Someone in authority should have stood up and said, “Hey, let’s take a look at this, do some changes in the plans and reallocate some of the building money toward teachers and educational supplies.” Oh wait, that makes too much sense. I’m sure there would be an arguement that changing plans would cost money. I’ve been involved in building plans, and yes architecture plans are expensive, but not as expensive as the waste we are seeing in California.
Perhaps if the decision makers salaries were based on reading and math scores, something could be accomplished. It’s our children that will suffer. Yes, children should have a nice school enviroment but going to a fancy building will not help them in life if there is no one there to teach.
This is exactly why my wife and I pulled all three of our children out of the public system and started homeschooling this year. I will not have my children shortchanged in their education, especially, when the schools spend like this and then have the nerve to ask for “classroom supplies” on their school lists.