This is a job for the $100 laptop!
Posted on 11/27/2005 8:24:57 AM PST by ncountylee
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- An Orange County school district's request that parents buy their children expensive laptop computers is raising a furor among parents and activists.
They say the pricey obligation is segregating the children into haves and have-nots, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Nearly 2,000 of the Fullerton School District's 13,000 elementary and middle-school students carry laptops between class and home as part of a year-old pilot program that expanded this year to four of the district's 20 schools.
The American Civil Liberties Union is considering filing a lawsuit against the school district, arguing that it is violating the state's constitutional guarantee to provide a free education, and is creating a two-tiered learning environment.
The Fullerton district contracted with Apple to purchase the laptops, software and insurance. Parents can pay the nearly $1,500 tab at once, or over three years with monthly installments of about $50. Financial aid and loaner laptops are available to families with demonstrable needs, the newspaper said.
I'm just not convinced laptops are necessary to get a good education. At school or at home,the instant message function, Internet surfing and games are too great of a distraction from the learning part of having a laptop.
Parents and teachers should monitor computer use by kids and teens to cut down on the goofing off and play use.
I'd rather see school hours used for traditional instruction where the teacher and students interrelate to solve math or read a passage or do sentence composition. Books, blackboards and paper are not that outmoded if real teaching and learning is the theme of instruction. Computer use can degenerate into pseudo-TV baby sitting if not controlled.
$1500 seems rather steep, particularly in today's market, and especially if this school district is of any size at all...
I work for one of the largest school districts in the country and, when it was decided that all teachers were going to have to have and use computers, we made it a statewide initiative and put out a request for proposals (RFP). Total: $6mil.
Apple, Dell, HP and a few others fell all over themselves offering WADS of options and GOBS of software packages, accesories, guaranteed compatibility, etc., etc. The price was around $700 with a year of free internet, software suites, updates, service and support and airport WiFi with a couple of hubs per school as a 'bonus'.
I would advise this district to get on the phone and talk to a nice salesman and say; "Hi! We need x-hundred laptops... can you make us a deal?"
Money talks. See if it don't.
Me, too. I am checking my temperature right now.
"The laptops are so expensive because they're from Apple."
You forgot to mention that they will still work and be virus free by the time the little bunchkins graduate in 4 years.
Unless the teacher is careful, they can be a detriment to "learning."
My son took some college classes online, and plagerism is such an issue that there are sites like "turnitin.com" that professors utilize. The student must turn the paper in to "turnitin.com as well as to the professor...turnitin.com tells the professor exactly how much of the essay/term paper has been duplicated from other websites or online sources.
In my son's higher math classes in college, there are calculators that are forbidding, because the calculators can be programmed and the kids don't really learn how to do the work.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
I agree totally! we have two kids. One has graduated U Tenn and works at the local TV station, the other just started college this year. They both have laptops which they got for use in College. I can tell you that 90% of their time on the computer is used to instant mail and talk with their friends and noodle around on My Place.com looking at pix and listening to music. This is a total waste of the public school system's money/and/or an unnecesary demand on the parent's money. No kid needs a laptop until they are at least in College and even then it has limited applications towards their educataion! My two cents.
Somebody had stock in the laptop companies...
LOL
>>Why can't they increase property taxes to cover the tab?
PLEASE BREAK FREE OF THE PROPERTY TAX ECONOMIC ENSLAVEMENT MENTALITY...
>>California Proposition 353.... shall the state government provide,free of charge,a new laptop to all students whose household has a gross income of less than.....
Don't be asenine.. It will read "the state government shall provide, free of charge, a new laptop to all undocumented workers [who are evading taxes]. Law abiding responsible, tax paying citizens of middle class and above (and of the caucasian persuasion) are exempt." LOL (Just kidding about the asenine statement...)
Children are already segregated by income and any attempt to level the field by introducing a---gasp!---dress code (as in many private schools) would result in objections from the ACLU.
That said, the use of a laptop seems counterproductive for middle school or elementary students. Computers are often a distraction from real education, especially for young children. Most middle schoolers in California, though "computer literate," would be hard pressed to define what a sentence is.
Parents have been buying band instruments that way for years.""
As a trombone player in high school, I seem to remember that being in any of the school music program was :
VOLUNTARY!!!!
This doesn't sound very voluntary to me.
If I were a parent paying the high taxes of the affluent areas of California, I would cry foul, also.
What's next? Only Calvin Klein clothes and Air Jordan shoes?
The property tax on a $500,000 home in Calif today runs about $6300. That doesn't include the latest method of tagging the property owner with more costs: Now they call the add ons "fees".
A tax is a Tax is a TAX.
School boards are out of control, as are the teachers unions.
When is the last time most parents attended a school board meeting? I remember my parents and other farmers in the area doing so on a regular basis.
That's not necessarily an argument for Apple. It is simply an argument against Windows.
I thought I read that it was voluntary but people were complaining about the haves vs the have nots. My comment was that I would find few that couldn't make the payments if they wanted to. It sounds like a good deal to me. Kids might have to go without the designer pants or expensive shoes or the parents might have to cook a few meals home but it read like they wanted them for free if other kids that were who were paying ,had laptops.
You have hit the nail right on the head. What good is a computer if the students can't read, write or do arithmetic?
Computer use should be an extracurricular activity or something learned at home. When colleges have to offer remedial classes for freshmen, we should know we are in trouble.
I guess it depends on how they are used. We have two computers in our home office. My 4 and 5 year old grandkids have a saved word document. They have learned how to follow steps to open and they just write. They will come over to me and ask which key they are looking for is at, on my pad and go back and use it on their's. My granddaughters name is Sarah though and she sees her name in "search" so that is a little confusing for her but I think this is helping them with reading and spelling. Last night we played Bingo and both had no problems with letters or numbers.
Will that $399 Wal-Mart laptop do?
No, I think they are Apple computers.
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