So they made a $578 million school in LA. We have this recession and it’s hit California even harder, and those jokers can’t even get their state budget together, so they make a school that costs more than half a billion to teach 4,200 kids (about $138,000 per kid). Was that why dropout rates were so high? A lack of insanely expensive buildings?
I’m starting to think that California politicians aren’t responsible enough to be trusted with any sum of money. This isn’t just wasteful spending, this is a cry for help. What’s a school supposed to be? It’s a bunch of walls to keep wind from blowing the kids papers form their desk and a ceiling to keep them from getting rained. How do you even get to $578 million with that? Does the school transform into a giant robot? Was it built on the moon? The officials responsible are saying that kids will learn better in a more creative environment, but haven’t the people in charge of education in California already demonstrated that they have no idea what it takes to get children to learn?
This is why SarahK and I are going to home school. We’re just opting out of this madness. People with absolutely no sense about them and come up with a school that costs more than half a billion are not people you want having any influence over your kids. Public school has basically gone in one direction for years now: Dumber and more expensive.
Hey, there’s a great 2012 slogan for Obama.
I’ll wager that the bulk of the money went into security, ESL, and the teacher’s lounge. I wish that big earthquake would finally come and snap California off into the Pacific.
There was discussion on whether they should have raised private funding to place the talking park benches on campus. When budget / funding talks assume talking benches are a given, it’s long past time to rip the yoke of power from all parties involved in the discussion.
There I fixed it.
It is all about incentives and threats and government outside of revolution from the people never really has any actual incentive to behave responsibly on anything.
The old TV show Yes Prime Minister was a brilliant show about this dynamic of no matter what happens the “civil service” grows.
The few who are occasionally elected but in a country where everyone even the dead, illegal immigrants, convicts, and students whose parents are paying all their bills regularly vote for one party there is a lot of people who will continue to vote for them regardless of spending behavior since it is simply not seen as taking money from others and giving some of it to them.
http://www.theonion.com/video/in-the-know-should-the-government-stop-dumping-mon,14289/
Governments are a monopoly and they have no more incentives to behave then any other monopoly.
So, was Picasso the Architect?
Suggest that they name it The Taj Ma High( School)
But think of all the money they are saving by driving their Priuses to school!
“Children learn better in a more creative environment”. So why aren’t there more Surf Schools in California?
Factories are a creative environment, send them to the factories to learn, preferably in China.
Dumber And More Expensive: That Top 10 Democrat Slogans List just keeps getting longer and longer.
In order to provide a sense of scale by way of comparison, you could take 578,000,000 one dollar bills and stack them on top of each other. The stack would reach so high that when it fell over, it would crush every politician in the state of California.
I am glad to hear that about you and Sarah, Frank. My parents educated me at home rather than opting into public edumacation. It was often very difficult for them, and the local governments weren’t very friendly, but I turned out fine and that’s what counts.
The Taj Ma High
BWAAAAAAA HA HA HAAAAAA
Yeah, California has gone from breadbasket to basket case in what is, really, a remarkably short time. The voters are driving the paving machine on the highway to hell, and I wouldn’t trust 95% of the California Senate to correctly order a happy meal.
Thumbs up for home education! I was home schooled and am in the second year of doing the same with my own kids. I shall be very interested to read what you have to say on this subject in a few years.
There are often movements afoot to take away our rights in this area, Frank. Be prepared to be vigilant.
And now for the completely unsolicited advice portion of this comment: John Taylor Gatto, John Holt, Ivan Illitch all have incredible things to say about teaching your own.
It is absurd and anti-life to be a part of a system that compels you to listen to a stranger reading poetry when you want to learn to construct buildings, or to sit with a stranger discussing the construction of buildings when you want to read poetry. — John Taylor Gatto
At $138,000 per kid, you could shove them into a sink-hole for four years and then buy them a college degree.
My favorite quote from the article…
“New buildings are nice, but when they’re run by the same people who’ve given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they’re a big waste of taxpayer money,” said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. “Parents aren’t fooled.”
The only good thing I can say about public education is absolutely nothing.
I am reminded of one of my favorite graphs ever. It was on the official NCLB website (when it was a new thing) and it showed flatline reading scores superimposed over exponentially increasing federal education spending. The text around it suggested it was supposed to be an argument in favor of increased federal education spending.
That right there is what happens when you don’t teach people enough math.
I’m sure their half BILLION dollar budget includes all the condoms the boys can wear, all the birth control pills the girls can eat and all the abortion counseling and referrals necessary to give the kids “a choice.” Plus, I’ll wager it’ll have a “progressive curriculum” with emphasis on global warming, glaciers melting, waters rising, planet dying, socialism/Democrats good and Constitution/Republicans bad.
My education K-8 was at our local parochial school. The nuns were excellent teachers, I qualified to get into an elite Jesuit high school. But I still have this inexplicable fear of penguins.
I hope so. It certainly can’t do any worse than those California schools that produced the idiots who built a $578 million school.
I see a new place to spread graffiti. I figure most of the expense went into bullet proofing.My wife is a retired teacher. She has horror storys, like when the county built these expensive fancy hi-tech schools, and lacked the money for teachers and books.
I’m a big proponent of home schooling; there’s no way I’d ever send my young kids to a public school. I figure by high school though, I’ll have taught them well enough that they can go to a public school and irreverently mock any libtard teachers they have.
I’m just a little upset that I didn’t have any flaming liberal socialist teachers to annoy when I was in high school.
Home schooling is fine as long as you teach your child how to sucker punch a fat mouth dumb a$$ public school kid! Some entertaining insults and a wedgie are also highly recommended as a nice touch of extreme coolness!
Well, I’m glad to see Frank is going to finally get an education, and to stay home and have SarahK teach him is an excellent idea. I’d do the same if I was hanging with a t-shirt model…
The majority of liberals live within 50 feet of sea level, so you can see why the panic on the slightest chance of ocean levels rising. Hence the overblown global warming hysteria. They’d all be wiped out if it actually happens. (And, no, I don’t expect them to be smart enough to move to higher ground).
I think Obama already has his slogan for 2012.
Obama in 2012
Because the Mayans said so.
The funniest part of that school?
You know they won’t have enough money to stock it or have enough teachers to fill it.
You can’t opt out – they take you money anyway. Look for a program like these: http://www.k12.com/schools-programs/online-public-schools/
My son is attending COVA in Colorado – Home Schooled, but you get your tax dollars back.
There are times I feel lucky. This is one of those times.
I somehow managed to get a good-quality education in California of all places. And it was all luck. Excellent elementary school, great middle school, and a quality high school, all right at the right times to catch them when they were actually good. My younger siblings all mostly went to the same schools (this is the last year a member of my family will be going to the elementary school…and it’s been continuous since we started with me in 1991!), and yet I can see that what they got/are getting is not what I got. Even some with the same teachers! My youngest brother is ten, and yet he writes like a first-grader (his reading is apparently at or above grade level, but he doesn’t even really get phonics yet)
Things are so bad that my brother (this one a senior this year), who wanted to be a teacher, almost gave up on his education last year when he figured out what a load the whole educational establishment is here. They’re killing dreams, man.