THE SKINNY

It costs L.A. Unified $85,000

a seat, on average, to

build a school. What else

would that

money

buy?

*

Band uniforms ($300 each): 283

Tubas ($5,000 each): 17

Textbooks:

* History (“American Pageant,” new edition; $100 each): 850

* Biology ($90 each): 944

Years of private high school (Crossroads in Santa Monica): 4

Years of Catholic girls’ high school (Immaculate Heart in Los Feliz): 11

Re-sodded baseball diamonds (sod only): 26

L.A. school police officers ($41,000 a year): 2

Art teachers ($42,000 a year): 2

Pounds of clay for art class (15 cents per pound): 582,191 (typical art class order: 2,000 pounds)

Gallons of hydrochloric acid for chemistry class: 3,492

Graphing calculators: 850

School yearbooks (estimated $60 each): 1,416

-- STEPHEN W. STROMBERG