Educational funding......so much Wasted....

I attended a session of a teacher workshop today. It was held at a new County Office of Education facility. Apparently, this facility, located about 25 miles from the main County Office of Education Castle, is used to teach an occasional ROP class or teacher workshop.
This "classroom" we were in featured 20 foot high vaulted ceilings and a flat floor. These features are, IMO, horrid. Where we live in California, the average temperature about six months of the year is over 90 degrees farenheit. Such a 'grand' feature as this vaulted ceiling will cost how many tax dollars to air condition ? As for the floor, why couldn't they make it with auditorium style seating, so that more people could see what was written on one of the three layers of whiteboards? Oh, it also featured a large screen, at least ten foot wide, for the ceiling mounted LCD projector.

So, why am I complaining about this nice new facility, other than those flaws I noted above? Because, IMO, it is not needed. The millions of tax educational dollars the County Office of Education spent for this facility is millions of tax educational dollars NOT going to help the vast majority of students learn. Money not available to the school children of California. How many regular public schools have such things ( LCD projector, big screen, multi-layer whiteboards, their own restroom facilities, chilled, filtered drinking fountains.....) available? Students at my school attend "gym" classes in a decrepid 50-year old plus "gym" which features no water for showering or any form of clean up after having PE, students housed in moldy portable classrooms, sitting in a variety of scruffy, long abused student desks, sitting outside to eat lunch (and it does not matter if it is 115 degrees outside, like it is in Aug., Sept. and Oct. here), etc.Does it matter?

Apparently NOT. The edubureaucrats have millions to spend to construct new, little used facilities for themselves and a few adults. Meanwhile the children of California suffer because the state lawmakers continue to allow such "educational spending" to continue. Yes, my students have books. Their restrooms are suposed to be cleaner (than before) and stocked with TP, soap and towels. But that took a lawsuit to achieve ( Williams v. SFUSD ? ) Prison inmates are allowed many things, because someone sued on their behalf. MAYBE someone needs to sue more often on behalf of the students of California ?

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