lots of back to school stories on the news today.
one item caught my eye:

metro atlanta opens 41 new schools. total costs = $550 million.
roughly $13.5m per unit.

that seems pretty reasonable on a per unit basis to me.

in the past 5 years ive built 2 brand new plants at approx $100m each.
my part was ~$50m each for hi-speed packaging equipment.
$25m for process equip, and another $25m for land/buildings.


my county has over 100,000 students in the county public system this year.
and opened a new elem school within walking distance of my sub-div last year.

another local county county with over 135,000 students opened 10 new schools at a costs of $115m this fall. all paid by 1-cent county sales tax. they have another 35 new schools planned to open within the next 5 years. they project 160,000 (current 49% Wh, 22% Af-Am, 16% His, 10% Asian, 3% other) students by 09. their op budget for 05 is $1.3b