$578 Million on one public school?

This is just too bizarre. The Los Angeles Unified School District was supposedly tight on money.

With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever.
The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of "Taj Mahal" schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.
"There's no more of the old, windowless cinderblock schools of the '70s where kids felt, 'Oh, back to jail,'" said Joe Agron, editor-in-chief of American School & University, a school construction journal. "Districts want a showpiece for the community, a really impressive environment for learning."
Not everyone is similarly enthusiastic.
"New buildings are nice, but when they're run by the same people who've given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they're a big waste of taxpayer money," said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. "Parents aren't fooled." . . .
New York City has a $235 million campus; New Brunswick, N.J., opened a $185 million high school in January.
Nationwide, dozens of schools have surpassed $100 million with amenities including atriums, orchestra-pit auditoriums, food courts, even bamboo nooks. . . .

With $7.3 billion budget in the 2009-10 school year, this is really a phenomenal amount of money to be spent on one school. This one school's construction costs represents 1/12th of the entire budget.

UPDATE: Meanwhile "California Delays $2.9 Billion School, County Payments Amid Budget Impasse"

This one school represents 1/6 of this entire payment to all the school systems and counties in the state.