Holy...$578m school....in LA.

[bfdd]

This was funded by a local bond measure, not the state budget. If the LA school districts are borrowing money to pay for overly expensive schools, that is their business. I live in Northern California. Leave us out of this.

- wolf

Northern California is full of the hippies who started the mess down here in the first place.

 

[BoomerD]

Oh I don't disagree that teaching kids computer skills is vital but we had a thing called a "computer lab" back in my day. These days they think every student must have a new laptop.

Personally, I think smaller classes would go a hellofa lot further than giving each kid a laptop.

And like I said earlier, textbooks are NOT expensive because they use paper and are sold as "books". They would still be expensive if they were sold as "E-books". Hell, they would probably love the idea because then instead of selling you textbooks every 6 or 7 years they could sell a "subscription plan" (like antivirus programs) that has minor updates every now and then.

Look at it this way, a dictionary has just as many words/pages/bindings etc.. as an average textbook does. So the cost to actually make the books should be similar (hell, throw 50% extra on the textbooks if you want to argue volume). What does a dictionary cost compared to a textbook?

Ah...got your meaning...NO, they're not expensive just because they're printed matter...they're expensive because they CAN be expensive...the fact that they're merely words printed on paper doesn't describe the rape that occurs when buying textbooks. Every word is written on high in pure gold ink.

 

[bfdd]

Anyone want to wager the parents of the kids going there don't generate enough taxes to pay for their kids' education and facilities?

hmm

In case anyone is interested where this school is located, its in Koreatown. It was built inplace where the Ambassador Hotel used to be.

Address:
3400 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90010

looks like that answered your question. Koreatown is like the best place to get an unregistered pistol for the low low price of 300 dollars.

 

[ShawnD1]

schools need state of the art kitchen and food courts to keeps kids from eating off campus? here's a solution. Lock the gates and don't allow them off campus.

Better solution: who the fuck cares? When I was in middle school, we would walk to the local baker for lunch sometimes. In high school, we would walk to 7-11. Oh the horrors of leaving campus.


In any event, cafeterias only cost money if the school is run by idiots. I'll use my university as an example of this. The budget of the campus bar was published in the school paper because the bar is technically owned by the student's union. A quick number crunch of income - expenses showed that the place was losing money. How do you fuck that up? If they would just rent the space out to a place like McDonalds then they would at least get guaranteed income from rent. In fact, that university did collect rent from a lot of different franchises in a different part of the campus. We had a Pizza Hut, Pita Pit, and a bunch of other places that paid rent to stay there.

Put a McDonalds and a Taco Bell in the LA high school then rape them on rent. That's how you make money.

 

[woolfe9999]

Northern California is full of the hippies who started the mess down here in the first place.

LOL @ "hippies." Yeah, this place is teaming with flower children. I can't even cross the sidewalk outside my office without bumping into at least two of them.

- wolf

 

[zephyrprime]

Look at it this way, a dictionary has just as many words/pages/bindings etc.. as an average textbook does. So the cost to actually make the books should be similar (hell, throw 50% extra on the textbooks if you want to argue volume). What does a dictionary cost compared to a textbook?

What exactly is your point? Dictionaries are cheap. Even big ones.

We need to move to open source textbooks. There's simply no need to keep reinventing the wheel with subjects that hardly change from year to year or change only infrequently. It's only when you get into the upper courses in a bachelors program that a student even begins to see anything cutting edge.

 

[bfdd]

LOL @ "hippies." Yeah, this place is teaming with flower children. I can't even cross the sidewalk outside my office without bumping into at least two of them.

- wolf

it's ridiculous i know

 

[WhipperSnapper]

We've certainly come a long way since the days when kids successfully learned to read and write in one-room school houses. Now we have palaces for them and many can't learn to read or write.

 

[PokerGuy]

We've certainly come a long way since the days when kids successfully learned to read and write in one-room school houses. Now we have palaces for them and many can't learn to read or write.

That's because what is important is an involved parent, a will to learn, and good teachers. The rest is icing on the cake. Unfortunately our government and the unions are dead set on wildly spending on the icing while ignoring the important things.

 

[JS80]

Better solution: who the fuck cares? When I was in middle school, we would walk to the local baker for lunch sometimes. In high school, we would walk to 7-11. Oh the horrors of leaving campus.


In any event, cafeterias only cost money if the school is run by idiots. I'll use my university as an example of this. The budget of the campus bar was published in the school paper because the bar is technically owned by the student's union. A quick number crunch of income - expenses showed that the place was losing money. How do you fuck that up? If they would just rent the space out to a place like McDonalds then they would at least get guaranteed income from rent. In fact, that university did collect rent from a lot of different franchises in a different part of the campus. We had a Pizza Hut, Pita Pit, and a bunch of other places that paid rent to stay there.

Put a McDonalds and a Taco Bell in the LA high school then rape them on rent. That's how you make money.

Works for white kids. Doesn't work so well with Mexican kids who leave campus and never come back.

 

[Darwin333]

What exactly is your point? Dictionaries are cheap. Even big ones.

We need to move to open source textbooks. There's simply no need to keep reinventing the wheel with subjects that hardly change from year to year or change only infrequently. It's only when you get into the upper courses in a bachelors program that a student even begins to see anything cutting edge.

First of all, textbooks require periodic replacement just from normal wear and tear. Even more so due to the fact that we are giving them to kids. I kinda disagree with your statement about not needing to be updated but generally they only buy updated books when they have to buy new books due to wear anyways so that isn't really a huge issue.

The issue is the insane amount of money they cost. My exact point with the dictionaries is that they are cheap so the paper/printing/binding is not the reason that textbooks are expensive as fuck. Moving to E-books will not solve the issue of cost because you are only saving a very small portion of the cost of the textbook. Frankly I think textbooks are a big ass scam that our schools willingly participate in. Kinda like a college prof who makes you buy HIS book for $200 in order to take the class.

 

[Modelworks]

What exactly is your point? Dictionaries are cheap. Even big ones.

We need to move to open source textbooks. There's simply no need to keep reinventing the wheel with subjects that hardly change from year to year or change only infrequently. It's only when you get into the upper courses in a bachelors program that a student even begins to see anything cutting edge.

I am still amazed at how many new geometry books are created each year. Who knew that triangles change so much from year to year ? If Euclid could have gotten eternal copyright imagine the money his descendants would have.

 

[Modelworks]

Moving to E-books will not solve the issue of cost because you are only saving a very small portion of the cost of the textbook.

Nope. They will still price it just as high. The same way you can charge more for computer hardware by tacking on things like enterprise/professional/commercial to the description.

And of course don't forget the hardware upgrade each year to run the new improved version of the e-book.

 

[ShawnD1]

I am still amazed at how many new geometry books are created each year. Who knew that triangles change so much from year to year ? If Euclid could have gotten eternal copyright imagine the money his descendants would have.

Try they to make it more cool and hip for the kids. Example, John puts a dildo in his ass that has a 3 inch diameter. Using our formula shown in Figure 13 (C = pi*d) we can calculate the circumference of it.

Then below that it says

Measure the circumference of your own penis and estimate its nominal diameter using the formula from Figure 13!

Class discussion
Share the results with the rest of your class and draw a bell curve to show the results. Perform the calculation shown in Figure 14 to find the standard deviation and assign a Z score to each student.

 

[IamDavid]

You really think it will take that long?

Until you change the attitude of the students to respect not just schools but property in general the place will deteriorate quickly.

Not far from me our town converted a tennis court to a skate park. In just a couple years the stuff has graffiti on it, parts of the ramps are pulled apart (not from wear and tear), and quite a few sections of the chain link around it have been ripped apart. What a nice way to say thanks kids

Change the kids attitudes? Thats a good one.Nothing will change until the pareants change.. Blaming the kids is a easy copout and a absolute waste of time....

And to the original post.... This is a perfect example why California will contimue to degrade into a 3rd world country.. They still to this day have zero idea of how the real world operates... Sure glad we'll all be bailing ot these idiots for years to come.....

 

[BoberFett]

Ultimately, these fancy schools won't fix anything because the deck is simply stacked against certain groups of disadvantaged students.

 

[ShawnD1]

Change the kids attitudes? Thats a good one.Nothing will change until the pareants change.. Blaming the kids is a easy copout and a absolute waste of time....

And to the original post.... This is a perfect example why California will contimue to degrade into a 3rd world country.. They still to this day have zero idea of how the real world operates... Sure glad we'll all be bailing ot these idiots for years to come.....

One question that has been bugging me for a while is why anyone should even care if the high school dropout rate is really high. Honestly, do you ever use your high school or university training to do your current job? For some people it's a yes and some people it's a no.

The following jobs do not require high school education
-all trades jobs
-all retail jobs
-all unskilled labor jobs
-all telemarketing jobs


Think of every employed person you deal with on any given day and ask if they are using their education. Wake up in the morning and catch a bus; you do not need a high school diploma to drive a city bus. You get to your work and the guy at the security desk waves at you; you do not need education to be a security guard. Your secretary hands you some files; you do not need a diploma to be a secretary (other training may be required). You notice the custodian is waxing the floor; you do not need a diploma to be a custodian. At lunch you go get some Chinese food; the people working there do not need high school diplomas.

Another thing to remember is that your pay is not strongly affected by formal education when you are doing one of these shit jobs. PhD or high school dropout, being a janitor pays the exact same. My best friend didn't even finish grade 10, but he's now the top manager at a McDonalds and makes roughly 40k per year, which is actually a bit higher than the city's average income.


So after looking at all of that, is it really critical to get the high school graduation rate up to 100%? Even if the entire population had masters degrees, nothing would change. Engineers would still be engineers. Philosophy majors would still work at McDonalds. Fine Arts students would still work at Starbucks.

 

[Zebo]

Public Schools stopped being about education a long time ago and are grants of discretion - e.g. who you can hook up from contractors to teachers and pass everyone along.. This won't end well.


Give private schools $12,000 to $15,000 per child and watch results. Even now with 1/4 that they smoke their public counterparts.

 

[Acanthus]

Public Schools stopped being about education a long time ago and are grants of discretion - e.g. who you can hook up from contractors to teachers and pass everyone along.. This won't end well.


Give private schools $12,000 to $15,000 per child and watch results. Even now with 1/4 that they smoke their public counterparts.

As population increases, costs increase and things get harder to manage.

This works with any business.

 

[ShawnD1]

As population increases, costs increase and things get harder to manage.

This works with any business.

Solution: Keep the population low. Allow vouchers, bring private industry into the school system. Government funded private industry works quite well as long as it's properly regulated.

Public Schools stopped being about education a long time ago

They might as well stop screwing around and just turn school into a day care. You already send your kids there for most of the day. Just make it open earlier and close later and there ya go.

 

[BoomerD]

Public Schools stopped being about education a long time ago and are grants of discretion - e.g. who you can hook up from contractors to teachers and pass everyone along.. This won't end well.


Give private schools $12,000 to $15,000 per child and watch results. Even now with 1/4 that they smoke their public counterparts.

Private schools should get by on their own dime...not on taxpayer money. No vouchers, no subsidies, just what they can charge from the parents who want their kids to have "better education."

Public schools (and even private schools) have become babysitters so that both parents can work. Parents are more and more disassociated from their children's education; they don't work with their kids on their homework, they don't communicate with the teacher to find out what Johnny really needs help with...but they're first to blame the teacher and the school system when Johnny can't read or add 2+2 and get a reasonably correct answer...
Then, add to the mix the kids who don't want to be there at all...the ones for whom education holds no promise of a better life, the ones who just don't fucking care...and are willing to disrupt the class with their antics...and it makes it that much more difficult for a teacher to present materials, for students to concentrate on learning, and more expensive as the schools have to deal with the disruptions and crime that occurs.

Also a big factor are the students who are "English challenged" yet are stuck in regular classrooms with the expectation that they will learn by "osmosis." While I'm all for teaching these kids, the burden of learning English well enough to be able to participate in class should be on the parents...not on the school system and taxpayers. If your child doesn't speak English...teach him (at YOUR expense) before you put them in a regular school setting. Little Juan or Xiang or Abdul need to be able to communicate in order to learn.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Also a big factor are the students who are "English challenged" yet are stuck in regular classrooms with the expectation that they will learn by "osmosis." While I'm all for teaching these kids, the burden of learning English well enough to be able to participate in class should be on the parents...not on the school system and taxpayers. If your child doesn't speak English...teach him (at YOUR expense) before you put them in a regular school setting. Little Juan or Xiang or Abdul need to be able to communicate in order to learn.

Many of these kids can pick it up quickly if they were not handicapped by their homelife/culture.


It does not good to be imersed in English for 6 housrs if the other 18 are spent in exposure with your native language.

As you indicated, the parents are failing by not realizing the importance of assimilating the child.
You are here for the American experience - stop fighting it