Parents Told To Pay For In-School Computers
from the pay-to-learn dept
Stories about computers in schools are nothing new at all -- and neither is controversy over whether or not such programs make sense. However, one school district in California is creating a new kind of controversy -- not over whether or not computers in schools are a good thing, but in how to pay for the machines. They're asking parents to pay $500 per year for three years -- which has some questioning just what a guaranteed "free education" in the public school system means for those without $1,500 to spare.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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First, America is NOT well-educated as a whole. Second, our public-education system is extremely important, and it is your responsibility to fund it whether you have a child or not. The only way this country will survive the coming centuries is by raising our standards of education for all citizens. A free-market society does allow us to profit from our greed and selfishness to some degree, but it doesn't mean we can simply neglect all social responsibility and pray economic's "invisible hand" will guide us. It won't. This country became what it is through passion and patriotism... through the will to build a better nation. Somewhere along the way, we've lost that, and people like "John Dubya" have become the norm, thinking only of themselves and not the future of our civilization. If you want to neglect your neighbors in favor of your own selfish interests, then go found your own damned country. If you want to be an American, then sacrifice a little and help education our children. ALL OF THEM.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not supporting communal beliefs. Robinhood was kind-hearted but could never have run a nation. But the education of our child effects all of us, and providing it is one of the most important responsibilities of our government, and hence of you and I, whether we have children or not.
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I agree - you aren't using the schools, so let the parents pay for it!
Also, I don't use the bus! I'm tired of subsidizing it! Hike bus fares to the $10 or so it would require to keep that intrastructure running!
Do you have a pothole in the middle of your street? Why do I give a shit? I don't drive there. Fix it yourself!
Why should I have to pay taxes to support fire or police services? My house has never had a fire and I've never been a victim of crime - I'd rather take my chances and play the odds.
Actually, I changed my mind, I *do* take the bus - I don't want any of my tax dollars paying for any road infrastructure that isn't on MY bus route. I also don't want to have to pay the drivers on other routes, or for maintenance for their buses. My route is plenty busy all the time, so I should have to pay less than people on less-busy routes. Oh, I also only take the bus for 2 hours each day, so I only want to pay for it to be running those 2 hours.
ME, ME, ME, ME, ME. Listen to yourselves. It's pathetic. We're all in this together.
How does the saying go? It takes a village to raise a child, but excess freedoms to raise a village idiot?
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Instead of complaining about "breeders" as you did in your other post, maybe you should make something of your life and get out and help make your local school system better. Misers, such as yourself, that think that everyone should pay their own way, regardless of their circumstances, are the ones that only make the situation worse.
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Bri
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Not the cheapest selection by far, and I'm not sure exactly what was the procedure used to decide that this was the best laptop brand for these kids.
In any case, Apple sells this on their site (the model with the 14" display and 1.4GHz CPU) for about 1300$ (or a model with 12" and 1.3GHz for 1000$, but... )
So if they buy the expensive model, don't get any discounts for the amount of computers, and don't buy it from anyone else, this comes out about right. Assuming they take a loan on the money to be repaid with the yearly deposits, with an amazing interest rate of 16%, that is...
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>$500 for 3 years? That's insane, my little Sister just got a widescreen Sony laptop for Christmas with a gig of RAM and it only cost $700.
For those doing the math and thinking this is a very expensive $1500 computer, you're not including the infrastructure required to connect and manage all these CPU's, plus whatever software is required for education. Oh, and probably printers and other peripherals, too.
On the subtraction side, I doubt very much that the $1500 per year per student is for ONE computer for that student which makes me think someone (an Apple VAR?) is making some bucks on this deal.
p.s. I are a public skool graduite. :-)
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free education?
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As far as being someones brat goes, yes I was at one time. However, when I was in school, both my parents and the school system taught me to be responsible for my actions and gave me the realization there is no such thing as a "free lunch". It seems that today the public k-12 school system in general is more of a glorified baby-sitting service than a place to send kids to get a decent education let alone teach them personal responsibilty, and as more and more parents seem to have an entitlement attitude, it's unlikely children are receiving this message at home either.
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Parents incur massive costs (that's a fact, not a value statement) for which we can assume they see benefits (otherwise a lot fewer would become parents), but there are major external benefits, including to those who don't have children. Basic economics suggests that to get the "right" number of children with the "right" level of education, those who get the external benefits should pay some of the costs.
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Re: free education?
Your parents and grandparents said the same thing about you and your peers. My parents and grandparents said the same thing about me and my peers. We've turned out alright. Have faith!
Those of us with any foresight will have sizeable personal retirement accounts [...]
Yes, saving money on your own is a good idea. No, relying on SS exclusively is not. The wisdom, merits, mismanagement, and future of the SS system are a completely different rant. The point was, as long as it's there, it will be funded... and when is the last time the fed closed a department, no matter how fubared?
It seems that today the public k-12 school system in general is more of a glorified baby-sitting service than a place to send kids to get a decent education let alone teach them personal responsibilty [...]
First, credit where credit is due. The school system is not nearly so mangled as you seem to believe. The schools do the best they can with what they're given. This is not to say that there is nothing wrong - there is plenty to criticize, but let's place blame where it belongs, hmm? Many (if not most) teachers have just as much of a disliking of the current curriculum as you seem to, and would love nothing better than a return to a more lean and mean teaching of core subjects. Just trust me on this. The problem is, for a school to run, it must have funding (that's "money") to pay for buildings, utilities, salaries, equipment, textbooks, etc**. It's expensive. The state picks up a good chunk of the bill, but the Fed offers money as well. Money in amounts that the states can't afford to ignore. Money with strings attached. Strings pulled by the same Congress Critters that give us nonsense like the Patriot Act and the DMCA... they write legislation that sounds like a good idea, but has ugly side effects.
You have outlets for your concerns. Join the PTA. Write your Congress Critter. Volunteer in school programs. Attend school board meetings. Do something.
Or, sit there, say all schools suck and dismiss the kids as brats.
** - my school district - 21 schools + SBO (22). ~200 computers per location @ $600ea ($2,640,000) + periphials (printers, scanners, etc. - another mil) + all of the networking equipment (another mil) + connectivity between locations (god knows). ~100 employees per * salary * 22 ($60-70 mil). ~1100 students per (24000-25000). Textbooks for the students - figure 5 each @ $90 ($11 mil). Plus utilities (and you complain about heating your house). Plus busses, and the fuel to run them, and the mechanics to work on them, and so on and so forth. Figure about $100,000,000/yr to teach the students in my county - it works out to about $4,000 per student. I think the schools do a damned impressive job for the money spent. Feel free to disagree. Feel even more free to suggest a better way to raise $100,000,000 a year.
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I do not believe that our schools are doing the best
that they can in teaching the basic skills. In general, they do not teach students how to think for themselves, use a library for research or proper ettiquette. I sometimes find bored teachers
teaching things that they find interesting not
what's most beneficial for the students.
Yeah, I understand, the basics are boring.
Sorry, that's the breaks. So I question the utility of computers at this time given the
extent of the educational software I'm aware of.
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And that, in a nutshell, is the problem with socialism.
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Although, as I said, $1500 is a lot, this just reminds me of what I see a lot in California. People want everything but are unwilling to pay for anything. They want tax cuts, yet cry when public services are cut. Sorry, but someone has to pay.
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Pay your way.
Having your homework eaten by a microsoft word virus and getting an 'F' might make you a bit more more responsble in the future instead of dumping the computer on the IT department and bitching about it.
And yeah, I don't want to pay for other people's kids either.
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Nothing New
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Reasonable
This is a lawsuit. I'm sure a judge would agree, a textbook is a reasonable purchase as an aid to education, a laptop is not.
The decision to exclude based on financial ability is simply inappropriate, and is not part of the mission of our public education system. The superintendent ought to have his credentials reviewed and his authority re-evalutated, as he may not understand this mission, hence possibly may not be the best candidate for this position. A review of personal financial records would also indicate whether or not he may have a secondary interest in this program.
Sadly, what will most likely happen is parents will sue and likely win, the taxpayers will have to foot the bill, and the attorneys will run with the money. All because of the errant decision of one superintendent who ought to be sued outright, instead of the school system, and foot the bills of this legal mess for everyone.
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education
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warmongers
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If they buy the d600/d610 they get free support(untill the 3 year warrenty is up) and we repair hardware problems ourselfs(we are dell certified so the ship us parts directly). If they don't buy a supported laptop we charge $25 to fix it and will only reapir software issues(and by policy we cant reinstall...if we cant fix it...thats it...we give it back and tell them what needs to be done)
I work to repair spyware/virus/os/hardware problems and usually we at least get a least 10-25 computers a day.
If they are including support then $1500 isn't that bad, but, do they really need such an expensive laptop? they are in gradeschool...I dont really see a laptop being that benificial in that grade
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Also..people compaining about paying for education is stupid. It benifits everyone.
If you think people are stupid now(which is not something I beleive),just imagin if they got no education at all. what do you think would happen to society? we definatly wouldn't make any progress and it would kill our future
I graduated 2 years ago from a public trade school. along with my normal math, english, and science I was also trained in Electronics. I beleive I was given the best education possible, but the school was underfunded. If it wasn't for my teachers paying for things out of their own pocket then my education would not have been as good (my electronics teacher bought many of our parts for our circuits)
Along the computer lines my school was behind, we were using 100-233mhz computers in shop (my shop teacher was extreamly grateful when I got 700mhz computers donated from the college I work for). Those computers were needed for circuit simulations, programing, and training and were very important to our education
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