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"If you smoothed out the funding, maybe by providing a per-student amount that schools could count on, districts could save up and be a little smarter about when they build," she said.

Translation: Give us more money to spend now and we'll promise to save some for later.

And that's all you get, a promise.

The worst thing about all this bricks and mortar investment is that in an age of distance learning, bricks and mortar are the last thing we need to improve education. It's warehousing kids for indoctrination, pure and simple.

Exactly. Kids can be educated via the web for a fraction of the cost. In fact, there are already businesses online that offer a comprehensive high school diploma.

The worst thing about all this bricks and mortar investment is that in an age of distance learning, bricks and mortar are the last thing we need to improve education. It's warehousing kids for indoctrination, pure and simple.

Exactly. It's a massive con game - possible only because the misinformed public keeps voting for their own romantic mental images of "how school used to be".

It's my contention they could close the entire California K-12 public school system down and end up with the exact same number of college-ready 18-year-olds every year. The smart kids, and the average kids with involved parents, will succeed no matter what kind of educational architecture is or isn't in place. The dumb kids won't succeed no matter how much you spend, and the public schools just provide the same function for them as prison for dumb adults - a great place to share and learn new crime techniques. ;)