[asdff]

Schools absolutely burn cash on furniture these days. Even when I was in high school it was bad. School administrators went to an apple store and had to buy those expensive huge solid wood tables they had for the common areas, which people promptly defaced in a few years. Wooden lockers too in the new wing, but they had those crappy cabinet hinges that tend to pop off with typical usage, so half the lockers would end up crooked and apathetic kids would slam them anyhow and legitimately damage the door at that point.

[woodruffw]

This probably varies widely by state and even county/district. My NYC public schools had hard plastic everything; the only non-plastic surfaces were sheet-metal lockers and soapstone lab counters. And I went to a well-funded school with lots of extra alumni cash.

[KerrAvon]

I’m pretty sure that’s not the case in most public high schools in the US. Parents would go apeshit if they wasted money like that.

[Pulcinella]

Schools burn cash in a “it’s expensive to be poor” kind of way. The desks in the schools I worked in were practically consumable, only lasting a couple of years before needing to be replaced. It’s impressive in a frustrating way: manufacturers have finally figured out the exact minimum amount of material and exactly how shoddy and few the welds can be to produce a desk and still be able to sell them. There is absolutely no bracing so sitting on them bends everything out of tolerance until a weld fails or the 4 legs are splayed out flat against the floor.

[paulryanrogers]

Hopefully the equipment isn't failing with kids present. Sounds dangerous.

[Hextinium]

The school I help at has these metal chairs with plastic inserts for the final inch of the leg. One leg will regularly snap off enough that they cut the rest of them off at the wood shop and put them back in the classroom, it's kinda funny seeing like half the chairs being a inch too short.

[lordnacho]

You can buy the tables from the Apple store? Really?

[blamazon]

Not literally from the Apple store as a merchant, but you can get the same style of tables, yes.

A web search turned up these folks who may be involved in the actual Apple store tables:

https://fetzerwood.com/