Even though the Los Angeles School District has a $640 million shortfall and has laid off 3,000 teachers, it is spending over half a billion dollars on a new school. It's a 23-acre complex named after Robert F. Kennedy. The $578 million school has fine art murals, an ornate auditorium suitable for hosting the Oscars, and a faculty dining room that the superintendent says is "better than most restaurants."

It's the most expensive public school in American history. Is this appropriate given the current economic situation?

The school superintendent Ramon Cortines, insists the funds spent on the imposing complex aren't being squandered. The money didn’t come from the state’s or even the city’s beleaguered education budget, he says. It came from $20 billion in in borrowed money (a school bond). Oh, I guess that makes it ok.

News reports: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/public-school-los-angeles-named-robert-kennedy-expensive/story?id=11462095 and http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0824/How-does-a-578-million-school-get-built-amid-cuts-layoffs-in-L.A.