Current Events > Why does America need so many new schools?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It seems like every district every year is asking for money to build new schools. Is there any real need for this? Does Europe and Canada do this?
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I would argue the money is usually better invested into teacher salary and learning materials but that's just me.

Every district is a different case though.
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schools right now have classrooms that are packed to the gills, and the buildings are aging very rapidly and have trouble accommodating the amount of kids in them.
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SH_expert44 posted...

schools right now have classrooms that are packed to the gills, and the buildings are aging very rapidly and have trouble accommodating the amount of kids in them.

Yeah where I went to school we didn't have a problem with over sized classes, but we did want a brand new school anyways. They eventually got their new schools.
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Cause American schools (especially public) built in the 50s, 60s haven't been maintained that good and barely upgraded.
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The issue in my county is new houses are going up everywhere and they're gonna need schools to put all those kids in.

When I was a senior 10 years ago, 6/8 of my classes were in portible trailers. My graduating class had 3000 kids.
I'm sure it's only gotten worse.
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SH_expert44 posted...

schools right now have classrooms that are packed to the gills, and the buildings are aging very rapidly and have trouble accommodating the amount of kids in them.

maybe its just my districts but seems they always tear down the old to build the new or stop using the old as schools (i.e. community building or library so it is no longer the schools'), but 5 years later are asking to remodel another school. if the classes are over crowded I am for adding a new school if the future demographics support it.

I have a feeling it is in part due to like earthquake fears over here, but holy shit, at some point let the kids die in old buildings. the primary school I went to had been standing for like 80 years.
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We keep on shooting up all of our old ones, so they need to be replaced.
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The HS I went to was in its 3rd year of being open when I started my freshmen year and it was the biggest school in the parish (county) when it was built. 2 years after I graduated they had to start adding T buildings because it was still too small
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this is actually related to those urban land use regulations I was talking about. this isn't all of the reason, obviously, but one of the reasons is that we are very sprawled out and have a lot of fragmented metropolitan areas. so as people moved from city centers to surburbs, we had to build schools since there hadn't been any. in areas where suburbanization has continued, like the bay area, this process has also continued

in areas like seattle I suspect what happened is that old schools were repurposed during times of population declines (like the 70s and 80s for Seattle) and now that growth has really ramped up the old schools that still exist aren't adequate to the task
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I know that my Seattle-area HS got completely rebuilt a year or two after I graduated. Though tbf, it had zero renovations since it was built in like the 60s-70s and still had the original carpet.
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Good question.

My Elementary School was like 45 years old back in the 1980s.

It's still being used... but as a Academy School now.
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blablablax17 posted...

When I was a senior 10 years ago, 6/8 of my classes were in portible trailers. My graduating class had 3000 kids.
I'm sure it's only gotten worse.

Fuck. Did they make you sit through the ceremony to graduate or could you just go up to the school and pick up your diploma?
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Education funds are the biggest front for crooked politicians to put money into their own pockets by dog-earing stuff in the legislation.

Most of the time, these governors and mayors have a family member who owns some kind of construction business. Ray Nagan (or however you spell it) contracted his familys business to do tens of millions of dollars worth of work to rebuilt New Orleans. They didnt do anything and he wound up going to prison when they found out that he had payed his family members astronomically more money than any other company would have charged
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codey posted...

blablablax17 posted...

When I was a senior 10 years ago, 6/8 of my classes were in portible trailers. My graduating class had 3000 kids.
I'm sure it's only gotten worse.

Fuck. Did they make you sit through the ceremony to graduate or could you just go up to the school and pick up your diploma?

There was a ceremony.
We all walked on the stage, got the diploma, and got the fuck off the stage in rapid fire.
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blablablax17 posted...

codey posted...

blablablax17 posted...

When I was a senior 10 years ago, 6/8 of my classes were in portible trailers. My graduating class had 3000 kids.
I'm sure it's only gotten worse.

Fuck. Did they make you sit through the ceremony to graduate or could you just go up to the school and pick up your diploma?

There was a ceremony.
We all walked on the stage, got the diploma, and got the fuck off the stage in rapid fire.

My class was only 225 or so, but we all had to sit through the whole thing out on the football field. I was one of the first 10 or so to walk so o had to watch the whole thing even though my part was done.
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Balrog0 posted...

this is actually related to those urban land use regulations I was talking about. this isn't all of the reason, obviously, but one of the reasons is that we are very sprawled out and have a lot of fragmented metropolitan areas. so as people moved from city centers to surburbs, we had to build schools since there hadn't been any. in areas where suburbanization has continued, like the bay area, this process has also continued

in areas like seattle I suspect what happened is that old schools were repurposed during times of population declines (like the 70s and 80s for Seattle) and now that growth has really ramped up the old schools that still exist aren't adequate to the task

So I'm curious, what sort of urban zoning and land use do you think should have been put in place back then and should be put in now?

I do wish that the lottery being for the benefit of the schools stayed in place. But that got moved to general fund once they saw how much it was making.
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