Posted on 06/25/2013 10:52:09 AM PDT by jacknhoo
At first blush, it seems crazy.
The perpetually destitute Los Angeles Unified School District will spend $30 million to purchase thousands of iPad tablets to give away to students at 47 LAUSD campuses.
At second blush, it seems crazier.
This purchase all but commits the nation's second largest school district to hundreds of million of dollars of additional spending with Apple over the next two years.
That's right, two years, hundreds of millions.
At third blush, it seems like a rip-off.
The LAUSD will pay $678 per iPad, even though you can belly up to the Genius Bar at the local mall and pick one up retail for around $500.
At fourth blush, it looks like a conflict of interest.
LAUSD Supt. John Deasy is not only an Apple stockholder, he has appeared in at least one Apple promotional video.
At fifth blush, it doesn't seem ethical.
The funds slated to buy the iPads come from a school construction bond approved by voters for brick and mortar construction and maintenance on existing structures. Would voters have said "Yes" if they knew hundreds of millions would end up in Apple's pocket?
And at sixth, seventh, eighth and
50th blush, it raises all kinds of unanswered questions.
Questions like what happens when kids lose them? What happens when kids drop them? What happens when kids steal them from other kids? What happens when kids view porn on them? What happens when kids download personal photos onto them? What happens when kids drop out of school? What happens when kids move out of the district, or out of state, and take their LAUSD iPad with them?
And what happens to a generation of kids who will go through life without ever having opened a book? I mean a real book with covers and pages and print?
In our increasingly semi-literate, short attention span world, do we really need to expunge the few remaining books from our kid's lives only to replace them with yet another digital device offering flashy images and slickly produced video.
I know I'm a quasi-Luddite and I might as well take a kitchen broom to Zuma and try to sweep the Pacific back to China. Still, actual textbooks and the physical act of reading a full-length book is an exercise in long form study and concentration that trains the eye and mind to think.
No doubt the iPad is an amazing device. The wife has one; so do each of the kids. It's a magical machine with remarkable capabilities to educate and amuse.
But it's not superior to books. A reminder to the digital generation, Steve Jobs didn't have an iPad when he went to school.
Superintendent Deasy defends the move as a necessary step for students living in an increasingly online world. He specifically cited state and national standardized tests that will soon be offered only in digital form as one of the many reasons this program is not only necessary, but visionary.
So a case can be made. But this massive investment has been sprung on the public with far too little input from the people paying the freight and far too many unanswered questions.
For the record, I do not believe Deasy pushed this plan for personal profit and he correctly recused himself during the debate and vote. And the superintendent argues the high cost per iPad is deceptive because it includes an educational software package that replaces expensive textbooks. Fair enough.
But I suspect what's really driving the bus is the ugly underbelly of Los Angeles, massive poverty.
As more and more of life's processes are converted to online operations, the disparity between the haves and have-nots has become a digital divide. With so many kids living below or hovering near the poverty line, the LAUSD is attempting to level the playing field by giving every kid a tablet, costs be damned.
They will do to the iPad what they do to obama phones, sell them and take the money for drugs.
the nice thing about this is that locals will be able to get IPads, cheap, at the pawn shop around the corner, for a good long time.
They'll claim it was lost on a boating accident?
“The LAUSD will pay $678 per iPad, even though you can belly up to the Genius Bar at the local mall and pick one up retail for around $500.”
That part really got me. As I was reading the first paragraph, I was thinking: “Well at least they probably got a good bulk-by price.” Ha! Maybe they come preloaded with essential apps — like Angry Bird. Yeah, preloaded with Angry Bird, that would justify the higher price.
Question 1: Who is going to pay for all of the Ipads for the students, teachers and staff?
Question 2: Who will pay when those Ipads get abused, lost, stolen or break?
Question 3: What will happen when these Ipads needs to be recharged and who will pay the cost for all the charging they’ll need?
Question 4: What excuses will the students come up with, as to why their Ipad doesn’t work, and why they therefore can’t finish their assignment or do their homework?
Question 5: What dumbass came up with this idea?
one of the best written articles on how libs waste our money
thanks for posting
I guess :)
If they want to level the playing field for these “poor”, innercity kids,
they’ll have to shoot/lock up a lot of suburban dads.
Because that’s where the disparity is - lack of fathers.
A precise microcosim of socialism. Hardworking families buy their kids a tablet. The Left recoils in horror that not all kids have an iPad so they dream up an educational pretense to justify stealing money from middle class Americans so they can redistribute resources and hand “poor kids” (those with only a 50” flat screen TV) an iPad.
How many of these iPads will go to illegal immigrants (illegal Democrats)?
So... does the iPad replace the 40 acres or the mule?
Teacher unions will like this until someone figures out a way to have teachers replaced by electronic devices.
My kids’ private school is switching to iPads. I think it’s a terrble idea.
First, I like the idea of books being availble as ebooks, but it should be up to the family to decide what works for them. My twns shared hard copy books and the older one passed down the books to his twin sisters.
Second, there are a lot of tablets that are cheaper than ipads. I’s prefer a choice.
Personally, I think the ipads are gong to be a distraction in class. Facebbook, etc.
The kids are still going to need a laptop fbecause you can’t easily type on an ipad.
I think it is a huge waste of money for a private or public school.
“...Question 5: What dumbass came up with this idea?...”
It’s California....just pick anyone at random.
Of course, if you want to greatly increase your chances of picking the bottom O’the barrel, you can always limit your search space to their legislature.
You forgot, “How much is the taxpayer on the hook for paying for home wifi for the kids?”
I was even a stockholder for a while (bought at $90, sold at $600, thank you veramuch).
But I'm also a parent, and I don't agree with this.
If you want to make a level playing field, then take such things away from everybody.
I have YET to be convinced that computers can be used to good effect in public school classrooms.
ESPECIALLY for smaller children.
Douchenozzle article from this crackerjack rag. No substance, just a halfhearted wanker whining apologetically about something-or-other.
The world is filled with progressive bitches who call themselves “journalists” and “luddites.”
Don’t be fooled: they were NEVER courageous enough to be journalists, they were ALWAYS licking the boots of the prevailing “progressive” culture, and their fantasies about books and studiousness are the lies with which they comfort themselves as they die.
Our family is NOT poor. We do not yet believe we should be buying an ipad.
This doesn’t seem crazy.
Coming from a school district that built a 578 Million Dollar High School....
(Thats right - over 1/2 a billion bucks)
.... this seems rather normal and ordinary.
‘Leveling the playing field’ is code for, ‘grab their wallets.’
I understand. We also are not poor and none of our kids have an iPad — and they have never needed one for school.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.