Comments on: Why Are School Construction Costs So High?

By: r licht

r licht — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:45:30 +0000

Bribes and kickbacks.
Simple as that. Union projects overseen by unaccountable bureaucrats have massive graft costs.
Look at the wealth accumulated by unpaid school boards and moderately paid school administrators, not to mention the union bosses involved (who have no-show jobs paid by the taxpayer).
The published estimated costs for a generic high school in Colorado Springs is $15 to $19M depending on whether union labor is used. Our high school cost $45M. Tell me someone did not get rich.

By: Jay P. Greene

Jay P. Greene — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:33:30 +0000

I thought almost $200 per square foot was expensive for school construction costs, but Lisa Snell points out that a LA school was being built for $1,000 per square foot. Wow! See http://educationweak.blogspot.com/2008/11/why-is-school-construction-so-expensive.html

By: Greg Forster

Greg Forster — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:25:18 +0000

If you did dig up how much private schools pay for construction, the union would probably respond that private school buildings are made out of flattened carboard boxes stuck together with glue made from asbestos.

By: Malcolm Kirkpatrick

Malcolm Kirkpatrick — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:02:23 +0000

Ten years ago I got a year’s worth of Hawaii DOE school construction contracts from the Hawaii Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS). I added the cost of all classroom construction and divided by the number of roms. The cost per room was over $200,000. This sounds high for rows of 30x40x10 foot boxes atached two or three high, but I do not know. I would like to know what private schools pay for classroom construction. We know from the federal investigation of the Hawaii DOT/Airports Division contracts how the competitive bid process failed: insiders took turns submitting the winning bids.

When a Republican became Governor for the first time in over 40 years, with the power to appoint the director of DAGS, the Democrat-controlled Legislature transferred authority over DOE construction to a bureau within the Department of Education,, over which the Governor exercises no control.

Senator Norman SaKamoto (D) is chair of the Senate Education Committee. His construction company does a lot of work with the Hawaii DOE.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/press/files/pdffiles/CallawayMistercomplaintFINAL.pdf

By: matthewladner

matthewladner — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:06:53 +0000

The district I live in built 3 schools for $58m last year. One of them is walking distance from my house. Is it just me, or is $20m for an elementary school more than a little pricey?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:00:32 +0000

In my junior year of high school the building (which was 26 years old at the time) was remolded. The inside of the building was completely gutted and the even added in some sky lights. As our school was being remodeled us students had our classes in trailers that were set up just off the football field.

Our cafeteria was a circus tent and for most of the time our gym was…surprise, outside.

We were called the “Tabb trailer trash” that year.

I think it was the best year of high school I ever had. I think many students thought that too.

Of course the administration was prone to extreme dorkyness (is that spelt with a “y” or an “i”?) such as naming the allies in between trailers, like “Learning Lane.”

My grades even improved and I ended up on highest honor roll for the first time (thanks to the fact that I had a 20/90 vision and when your classroom is in a trailer everyone sits in the front…hey, I could see the chalkboard).

It looked kinda like this: http://www.nortexmodular.com/Projects2002/Cedar_Ridge_Charter_School/cedar_ridge.htm