The Los Angeles Unified School District began construction on  a $45 million high school in 2000, despite reports that the building site was atop an abandoned oil field.

With $140 million spent, the building was declared unfit and unsafe, and mothballed. A student never set foot inside. Now they’re pushing ahead to finish the project.

Such carelessless with public money should act as a cautionary tale for advocates of government monopoly on health care (aka “single payer”) but it won’t.

Read then the astonishing tale of Belmont Learning Complex, uh, make that Vista Hermosa.

When the school opens in 2008, at least nine years behind schedule, it will indeed make history — with its cost. The final tab will top $400 million, almost certainly claiming the title of America’s most expensive high school, and there will be no retail or housing.

The school, now called Vista Hermosa, was conceived in a school district that at the time lacked the expertise to build schools. The Los Angeles Unified School District has since put together the nation’s largest school construction program, but the hemorrhaging continues at Belmont. Recent work expected to cost about $111 million will reach nearly $200 million instead.

For all the money spent, “they probably could have built three more high schools, maybe four,” said City Councilman Ed Reyes, who represents the area. “That’s a very painful reality. I think 70% of the cost was not necessary.”

You have to read it all to believe it.