After the new 7 Wonders of the World were unveiled on Saturday, on Sunday the Daily News opined that, right here in LA we have a soon-to-be-landmark far more worthy of being on the 7 Wonders list than a trifling Taj Mahal, or some crumbling temples at Petra. They were talking, of course, about the not-yet-complete Belmont Learning Complex that is set to come in at a whopping $400 million, making it the most expensive high school in the United States.
In case you missed the announcement of the Belmont cost over runs, which can no longer be said to be merely ballooning as they are now reaching the proportions of a dirigible, here’s the the very depressing LA Times write up .
This has to be connected to the argument that we need to spend more money to improve education.
P.S. At the top of this post, I want a picture with writing on it.
Only for you, Woody.
Can we finally give the Mayor a chance to kick some butt at the LAUSD to get them to show some results? “His” new school board has finally given them a timeline, enough of this just “studying” what to do, more task forces…We don’t have even ONE middle or high school that isn’t scary, excpet arguably in Palisades, but locals even can’t be assured of getting in there any more. The rest are literal battlezones: If that gay firefighter, who’s supposed to be tough, can’t handle some abuse, what about our kids, who are harassed and even beaten daily for being the wrong color, ethnicity, sexual orientation and live in the wrong part of town…Do they all dewerve six plus million each? I myself saw kids being beaten in the schoolyard at the relatively safe Gardner school in Hollywood: the “white” kids are all Russians or Armenians, and when I had to go to the school to finalize a permit to sign my daughter out and into a school on a STAR program permit, saw a bloodied little blonde girl, come into the office. “Third time this week,” sighed the secretary, who cleaned her up and sent her back outside.
(By the way, it took some ferreting to find out that if you pay over 4K/year for a STAR permit, you can try to get into one of those schools, space available, but then can’t pick up your own child directly after school, etc. Still, desperate parents do this gladly. Paying the equivalent of many religious schools for a public elementary. But no such option after 5th grade, leaving many parents terrified.)
Schools need to deal with these basic safety issues in conjunction with the Mayor/Bratton and LAPD/ the Gang Reduction Programs various officials jointly want. At least the Mayor called attention to this fact, which the LAUSD has ignored. Kids can’t learn when they’re afraid to go to school.
Brewer, Marlene Kanter and the leadership of UTLA are more than useless, they obfuscate change. I hope people aren’t so anxious to keep the Mayor from redeeming himself that they disparage him from kickstarting the LAUSD into action.