$147 million school in Atlanta

When I first read the title, I thought it was a new college or something. But flippin' high school!?!?! I'm sorry, but just looking at it that is a lot of tax dollars wasted. I know they probably saved some money by using an old IBM building to do it, but some of the areas within that high school look like they're better than some colleges. Put that with a low graduation rate in the area, it just doesn't make sense. Just seems like they could've gotten by with less glam and used some of that other money on textbooks or even toward hiring better teachers if their grad rate sucks that bad.

/rant
 
Buckhead is the hoity toity part of Atlanta. There is a decent amount of economic diversity, but it is upper middle class for the most part. I imagine it is built to entice move ins and improve the grad rate, ie "If you build it, they will come."

This does not surprise me at all.
 
It's also 11 stories, so I wonder how big the student population is. $147 million for a school that serves like 8k kids wouldn't really be that bad. None of the pictures showed anything that popped out as unreasonable extravagance.
 
The school is big and new and in the nice part of town. I don't see anything too outrageous about this.

I agree and the voters approved it. BUT, spending money on books and paying/retaining good teachers would be a better use of money in my opinion.
 
Text books are mostly digital now. Atlanta and the metro area are very progressive about schooling. Teachers would be great, but they're inevitably underappreciated. I wonder how other schools will suffer as a result of this being built... plus, that area is already very congested.
 
Text books are mostly digital now. Atlanta and the metro area are very progressive about schooling. Teachers would be great, but they're inevitably underappreciated. I wonder how other schools will suffer as a result of this being built... plus, that area is already very congested.

Fine, spend money on teachers and teaching materials rather than cafeterias/food courts. I don't get the rest of your post.
 
Fine, spend money on teachers and teaching materials rather than cafeterias/food courts. I don't get the rest of your post.


Not really sure what you're trying to criticize? As someone who attended a metro Atlanta high school within the last 5 years, and has two family members working in public schools in the area, I think I'm qualified to say that 1) Hiring new teachers is not something the state is doing much of right now 2) Current teachers are already getting furloughed as a result of cuts 3) Numerous schools do not even utilize text books anymore 3) The Common Core has dumbed down the need to have teachers that are exceptional beyond preparing their students for anything other than a standardized test, and 4) The Georgia Legislature made a committment to improve their educational system a few decades ago in an effort to entice people to move there (Metro Atlanta), and it has worked. The rest of the state, particularly the southern part, struggles to get high test scores because the resources are not there. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
 
Last edited:
I'd be willing to bet my rickety old parochial high school has a better graduation rate, nay, a better "attend college and complete a 4 year degree rate" than that high school, at a much less per pupil expenditure.
 
It looks nice, but depending on the student population it might not be that out of line. For instance, all of waukee high school's combined cost from initial build through all of their additions and the 9th grade building probably add up to a pretty large number too. Its pretty insane on the inside really especially the new fieldhouse and media center
 

Help Support Us

Become a patron