America's most expensive public school: What $578 million buys

L.A.'s historic Ambassador Hotel — site of Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination — has been replaced with the country costliest public school campus

The new school cost $578 million, surpassing the price tag of the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School that debuted in 2009.
(Image credit: CC BY: Justefrain)

The Los Angeles Unified School District is nearing completion of a new $578 million public school campus on the site it cleared by razing the storied Ambassador Hotel, where Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. When it opens, the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be the most expensive public school in the U.S. — and one of the most controversial of the nation's so-called "Taj Mahal" schools, given that the struggling school district has been forced to lay off nearly 3,000 teachers and slash programs in recent years. (Watch a local report about the school.) Here, a quick guide:

What does $578 million buy you?

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us