Money Down the Drain

Students these days don't usually shower after gym class. Officials in the San Francisco Unified School District say the showers in its middle and high schools are almost never used, except occasionally by the sports teams. But the district will have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the showers handicapped accessible to bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Meanwhile, some schools say they already don't have the money to replace damaged chalkboards and desks. Other school systems have taken out their showers and replaced them with other things, such as weight rooms, but San Francisco officials say it will be cheaper just to make their showers ADA compliant.