At Top Public School, Rising Stars Dodge Falling Ceiling Tiles

From the front page of today's WSJ, an article about how the physical plant of many schools is falling down.

 

Many readers will conclude that the problem is that we're not spending enough on our schools, but the data shows that we're spending more and more -- it's just not being spent wisely or well!

 

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At Top Public School, Rising Stars Dodge Falling Ceiling Tiles

Mildew, Bugs and Masonry
Bedevil Thomas Jefferson;
Water Wrecks a Computer

By DIYA GULLAPALLI
August 28, 2006; Page A1

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115672841445646981.html

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology routinely reports among the nation's highest average SAT results and number of National Merit Scholarship finalists. Ronald Reagan and Al Gore have addressed its students, and educators from overseas often tour the school in search of inspiration.

But recently, what's made the biggest impression isn't the school's supercomputer or its quantum physics lab -- it's the moldy ceilings. And the bug infestations. And the fact that the school's young whizzes have been repeatedly threatened by falling ceiling panels, light fixtures and pieces of steel air ducts.