Mikey Campbell
Ramon Cortines, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, on Tuesday announced the official termination of a plan to equip local schools with $1.3 billion worth of Apple iPads, a project fostered by his predecessor last year.
As of today, LAUSD has scrapped a landmark iPad in education initiative meant to provide Apple's tablet to students and educators within the district's schools, reports the Los Angeles Times. The decision announced on Tuesday was supposedly unrelated to a surprise FBI seizure of 20 boxes of documents from LAUSD's headquarters on Monday.
"We're not going to use the original iPad contract anymore," Cortines said. "I think there have been too many innuendos, rumors, etc., and based on my reading of a great deal of material over Thanksgiving, I came to this conclusion. As CEO and steward of a billion-dollar operation, I have to make sure things are done properly so they are not questioned."
LAUSD, with uncontested Board of Education approval, first inked a $30 million agreement with Apple last June as the initial phase in what would become an ambitious $1.3 billion rollout. The district subsequently earmarked $115 million for additional supply as the project grew beyond 47 seed campuses.
Since initial funding came from voter-approved bonds, "iPad-for-all" was controversial from the start. Further confusing issues was mismanagement and a nebulous funding plan devised in part by former schools Superintendent John Deasy, who championed the iPad initiative as a civil rights issue. Also in question was the bidding process and ongoing budget issues, the latter stemming from a misunderstanding of Apple's bulk purchase discount terms. Facing criticism, Deasy resigned in October.
Other issues with the program included a security breach in which students found a way to bypass school-imposed content filters, prompting LAUSD to halt home use of the tablets.
As noted in today's report, Cortines' decision will delay 27 schools from receiving iPads already approved last year. As an option, the campuses can swap out iPads for Google's Chromebook under a separate deal authorized by the board in June.
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62 Comments
Words fail me when it comes to describing how stupid this decision is.
Not surprised
Yeah like a Chromebook is going to get anyone anywhere these days..... sheesh! - I think this is more the old world not understanding the new world. New world is tablets and apps and online education. The old world is Microsoft and web based applications. Educators and administrators need to keep up. There is an entire new generation of children out there and the stats show that they are not using Chromebooks, Microsoft Laptops or even google android devices. They are using iPads, iPods and Apps and the vast amount of educational material that they can contain. They don't want chrome books ?!? Put the controversy to bed.... Give the children what they want or they are going to be singing the "Wall" for the next 30 years.
Let's see what he has to say a year from now when his first batch of chromebooks have been destroyed by the students simply by typing on them.
One small step [backwards] for mankind.