The Taxpayers League of Minnesota has started a great feature, which highlihgts extravagent government structures in that state, The "Taj Mahal of the Week."

Nearly every day, I drive past a stunningly beautiful and extravagent public school campus in berkeley. Perched on a prime hillside lot, with incredible views of the Bay, bridges, and mountains, the building itself features a large glassed—in atrium, the finest materials, and beautiful lanscaping on its oversized grounds. It must have cost at least 50 million dollars. To the causal eye, it looks more like an elegant corporate headquarters building than a school.

Of course, every year we berkeley taxpayers are told that our schools are underfunded and are "cutting back." This brand new school is a physical rebuttal more powerful than any words could be. And it is far from the only major luxury construction project of the Berkeley schools.

Taj Mahals indeed.

Thomas Lifson  2 19 05

A reader who preferes anonymity adds:

The paucity of education in the interior of the school house is in reverse proportion to the extravagance of the exterior.  The Wizard of Oz is still alive and well behind the curtain.