mahal schools, robert f. kennedy community schools complex is set to open in over a week. fine art murals, a manicured public park and state of the art swimming before. it s in the former ambassador hotel where rfk was assassinat assassinated. and los angeles laid off nearly 3000 teachers over the past two years and the district faces a 640 million dollar budget shortfall. not to worry district leaders say that the school that was funded by 20 billion dollars in voter approved bonds and no money comes out of the current school budget. well, thank goodness for that. we have to take one more break. activia s great new taste?
mahal schools, robert f. kennedy community schools complex is set to open in over a week. fine art murals, a manicured public park and state of the art swimming before. it s in the former ambassador hotel where rfk was assassinat assassinated. and los angeles laid off nearly 3000 teachers over the past two years and the district faces a 640 million dollar budget shortfall. not to worry district leaders say that the school that was funded by 20 billion dollars in voter approved bonds and no money comes out of the current school budget. well, thank goodness for that. we have to take one more break. when we come back our hits and misses of the week. in t count! [ both screaming ] i got into one of the most expensive schools in the country! [ male announcer ] when stress gives you heartburn with headache. alka-seltz gives you relief fast. [ low male ] plop, plop. [ high male ] fizz, fizz.
fix our schools. three words which have driven much of our coverage this week. we have sent reporting teams across the country to document the education crisis in america. most importantly, we ll shine a light on success stories that can empower us to offer our children so much more than they are getting now. a new school in los angeles is stirring up controversy. it s in one of the poorest areas of the city. but massive school the massive school cost more than half a billion dollars to build. look at that price tag. we get a tour of the nation s most expensive public school. reporter: this is one of the poorest inner city neighborhoods in los angeles. where dilapidated, severely overcrowded schools force kids to be bussed far away. a community that fought for new schools for nearly two decades finally, they got it. this brand-new high school in the heart of los angeles is being called the taj mahal of public schools. it has fine art murals,
more expensive than the birds nest stadium built for last summer s olympics in beijing. it is the most expensive public school ever built in this country. price tag, $578 million. but some say it s a luxury the los angeles school district cannot afford. welcome to the alice in wonderland world of education politics in los angeles. where up is down, down is up, and none of these decisions have anything to do with kids. reporter: the district has a $640 million budget shortfall. they ve laid off 3,000 teachers. l.a. unified is one of the lowest-performing school districts in america. so why not take the money that was spent there and spend it on education? illegal. illegal. reporter: district officials say the money for school construction comes from voter-approved bonds. totally separate from what s budgeted for textbooks and teachers. i sense that you are a little embarrassed about the price tag of this thing. yes. it bothers me. reporter: l.a. s not alone.
dollars. the complex is built at the site of the ambassador hotel where robert f kennedy was assassinated. highlights, fine art murals, manicured public park and our favorite this is steve moore s favorite the talking benches that describe the site s history. steve more is senior economic steve moore is a senior economic writer for the wall street journal . remember that senator from wisconsin used to have the golden fleece award for wasteful projects from the great state of wisconsin. this would have won. 600 million dollars for a school? they are calling it the taj mahal. the taj mahal didn t cost 600 million dollars to build. the thing that is outrageous we are talking about the los angeles county school district where they ve had to lay-off workers because they don t have money. there was announcement today that schwarzenegger is not going to have enough to pay