I thought California was near bankruptcy?

I thought California was near bankruptcy?
Well yes, but how do you think they got there?

Where did they get the money for that?
If you are going to spend that much money on a school building (extravagance, really), those students better build the starship Enterprise.

But.. But.. it's Artsy. How can you put restrictions on creative ego? If you are broke you still have to feel good and go on with what makes you feel good right? Think of the creativity of youth and how we can empower it.
Whoa I was channelling Nancy Pelosi for a minute.
Now I am back to what I call normal is that a giant water slide?

I must be old - I remember when one million dollars was a lot of money.

While shopping today, I found one of those cards that showed a snapshot of the year I was born - the annual salary was just over $5,000.

When I was a kid I always thought:

If only my school was the centerpiece of the community. Architecture means so much to a 10 year old.

Thank you Mr. Agron; it's for the children, of course.

Hee hee. Just saw this on Greta"s show. A few years back I saw a documentary that featured an earth shoe wearing dude that was damning the whole capitalist transportation thing by proclaiming that Interstate highways cost 'many schools per mile'.

The RFK Expressway would be a new record I reckon'.

Give them a break - it's only the cost of 578 Olympic sized swimming pools.

http://tinyurl.com/2ds3j32

As the article pointed out Cali is not the only state that engages in such excess.

I recall a school being built in westbank BC that held maybe 300 kids and cost 13 million more than ten years ago. This school in LA houses 4200. So, while it is hideously expensive it is not completely unprecedented.

Six words provide the solution :

School vouchers school vouchers school vouchers.

It is not retricted to schools. ALL public buildings (libraries, hospitals, post offices) cost way too much because the "owners" (ie the politians) want the building to look nice. Commercial buildings must worry about construction costs, maintenance costs, rentable space ratios to common area gross ups. They build maximum rentable space on any given land area. The main library in Vancouver only has government tenents outside of the food court for this very reason as government departments/agencies are the only ones who can afford the lease rates (usually occupancy is forced by higher ups who must fill the building to justify its expense).
The buildings are usually over budget and behind schedule during construction.

California can not change until it crashes and when it does it will not be pretty.

Let's do some arithmetic, shall we? The Roybal school quoted in the article cost $377 million, and will have 2400 pupils. That's $157,000 per pupil. Assume the school has a 50 year life span; that's $3k per student per year. Assume 120 teachers at $50k average salary each (stop laughing!); that's another $2.5k per student per year. Support staff - principals, secretaries, janitors, etc. - another $250. And operating costs - light, heat, computer upgrades, etc. - another $250.

That's about $6,000 per student per year, and I'm pretty sure I've underestimated at every point. As Gord suggests, giving the parents $24k in vouchers would probably result in better outcomes for everyone but the local school board and the teachers' union.

And just to follow on Norm's point: in Richmond Hill, they built a new central library a few years back. Four stories of soaring glass windows, huge open spaces, and a nice big green space outside the front door. It won a bunch of architecture awards, and all the politicos fell all over themselves with congratulations.

Except if you ask the staff or patrons. The floor to glass windows, facing directly south, mean the building is too hot for its A/C to handle in summer, and too cold in winter. A recent malfunction in the sprinkler system meant the building had to be closed for a nearly a month, and thousands of books were damaged. There is no entrance near the parking lot (which is not in front of the building, as that would interfere with the pretty green space which is UNUSED!), so in the dead of winter, you have the joy of a 300 yard walk in the snow and sleet. There's an underground parking lot, but that's reserved for the staff, of course. Politicians build these things as monuments to their egos; as for serving the public? The public be damned.

Well if they can afford to pay small town mayors $800k - a job that comes with 28 weeks paid vacation, should we be surprised that California can afford half a $billion+ for a school ?

California dreamin' . . . on such a budget day . . .

Halifax Citadel high school was completed in 2007. Cost $25 M. Students: 1400. And it's a great school. Triple the number of students and you'd probably still come in under $100M.

So... $578M????????!!!!!!

It sure looks like that is a guard tower to me. So much for no 'back to jail'.

This looks like a monument to the Teacher's Union.

And in other news...

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61D2BP20100214

The true earmark of the beginning of the end of a society is when there is more money being spent on the buildings than on the people.

A rough translation of a famous ancient person! ;^D

Of course they need a federal bailout now. Who can say otherwise? So what if my kid goes to school in a modest building with small gym and an Auditorium/Cafeteria? My state is not broke, so I should pay for them what are.

Remember my name[FAME]
I'm gonna live forever. I'm gonna learn how to fly. [HIGH]
I feel it comin' together. People will see me and cry. [FAME]
I'm gonna make it to heaven. Light up the sky like a flame. [FAME]
I'm gonna live forever. Baby, Remember my name.

[REMEMBER, REMEMBER, REMEMBER, REMEMBER, REMEMBER, REMEMBER]
(Fame- Irene Cara)

Another palace to one of the knights of Camelot at taxpayer expense.

FAME!