Posted on 01/11/2024 5:27:55 PM PST by george76
An annual report from the Inspector General of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) revealed that millions of dollars worth of tech devices were reported lost or stolen “without appropriate search and recovery efforts.”
The fiscal year 2023 annual report released Tuesday states CPS schools reported 77,505 tech devices as lost or stolen during the 2021-22 school year, totaling well over $23 million in original purchase price.
The discovery, as a result of the district’s first post-COVID-19 inventory, calls the numbers “unacceptably high” and says the oversight process is in need of a “serious overhaul.”
The report said the missing items included laptops, iPads, Wi-Fi hotspots, printers, document cameras and interactive whiteboards.
“At three dozen schools, 100 percent of tech devices assigned specifically to students were marked lost or stolen, inventory data showed,”
...
During the same school year, CPS shelled out upwards of $124 million on “technology assets,”
...
The district statement added that they are working to change the process, enhance systems and hold school leaders accountable to the asset management policy.
...
Our work uncovered an incident where there were a pair of siblings, a brother and sister at school who between them lost 9-10 devices, (and) there’s no record or indication that the district reached out to the family mentioned this was an issue try to figure out what happened.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Looks like the Chicago Teachers Union is in the used laptop business.
“Lost.”
Reparations.
This article was originally publishing in “DUH” Magazine.
I’ll never understand why schools (and others, like churches) have to go to all “tech” learning materials.
The ROI has to be terrible. This article is about “lost”, but what about broken, and just plain “too outdated”? Huge waste of money if you ask me.
This is a glaring example of why government schools are such bad news. Graft, theft and corruption are their only products.
Students still can’t read
Maybe they just said they bought them and kept the cash.
For Chicago, only about 20% missing is probably pretty good.
the “school” lost...
Not reported lost or stolen until the eBay auctions were over
Aaaaand no one will be held responsible, no one held accountable and if you try to contact the parents of the students you will be branded a racist and probably arrested. Goodnight Chicago.
Small, rural school I used to teach at and still sub at has gone all in on ‘chromebooks’. To me it is a mess. The kids treat them like trash, if they aren’t charged overnight, they have an excuse not to do the work, since much/most of the lessons are delivered via Chromebook/google classroom.
Do they actually do their lessons on them? Some do, but most just play games and music videos. Back when textbooks were used, a kid might sneak a comic or other book inside the text to pretend he was reading, but with the Chromebooks half or more are not ‘on task’.
The schools have been going for tech for at least the last twenty-five years. There are grants provided to make the tech virtually free, or at least very low cost. But by the time you add up the costs of maintaining the complex systems required, it is far from free. And it’s not as if the kids are learning better with the tech, in fact, quite the opposite.
I am not making this up. TodayI had a sixth grader tell me that she didn’t know what 11-8 was. “I don’t do math”. I immediately told the math teacher next door just to depress her. She didn’t act surprised. It is comforting to know that these kids will be the staff at my future nursing home...
The Windy City is filled with students, political office workers, regular office workers, small & large business establishments, gamers, and a bevy of fences who are enjoying $23 Million dollars worth of devices through the forced largesse of the Chicago Public School Budget.
Around here somewhere. Just give us a minute.
My son was assigned a chromebook in Freshman year. He still has it. He charges it faithfully every night.
If we don’t return it when he graduates, we have to pay for it.
The problem lies with the fact that most of these kids won’t graduate. Withholding diplomas, school transcripts? Big whoop. Not going to college anyway.
“Not going to college anyway”!
You are so WRONG about that; they will be the graduating classes of YALE, HARVARD, MIT, and BERKLEY in the next few years.
Then they will go on to elective offices with their degrees in (fill in the blank) STUDIES!
bc it allows teachers to not have to even lecture / teach anymore. They just let kids watch videos on whatever topic they are supposed to be working on. Seen it in my own private school. Many teachers are LAZY LAZY LAZY and pretend tech allows kids to all work at their own level. Instead, it’s a race to the bottom.
Now, just how could anyone believe that such a thing could happen... /s
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