Heather Sutherland was excited to learn her public school system was using laptop computers to teach elementary students such as her daughter. Until, that is, she found out parents were expected to pay the nearly $1,500 cost.
“I said, ‘What? You must be joking,’ ” Sutherland says. “I think it’s unfair that the (school district) is requiring us to ‘pay to learn.’ “
Schools should be teaching that nothing of value is truly free. It appears that some parents don’t understand that. Either the parents buy their own laptops or the school makes everyone pay via taxes.
On the other hand, I certainly don’t like the idea that the school gets to pick the specific computer I have to buy. What if I already have three laptops, do I really need to buy a fourth?! And why pick an operating system used by only 10% of the population? If you’re going to go with an alternative OS you might as well go with a free one to save money.
Unless this school district is in a wealthy neighborhood, I predict the school board to change their minds or be shown the door at the next election.
$1500 for a laptop is virtually impossible for a great number of families. Make that totally impossible. It certainly would have been for my family when I was growing up. I swear, some people have no concept of the realities of American economics.
Why the hell does the kid need a laptop anyway? Laptops are easily broken, stolen, more expensive, and because they are slower become outdated faster than a desktop. The kid doesn’t need to take the machine with him everywhere. This is just stupid. My mother is a primary school teacher, and the stories she tells me about dumb-ass administrators, and the really “great ideas” they come up with regarding computers, and that sort of thing can be the most hilarious shit I hear all day. Many times the ideas are just forgotten, and never implemented.
Now as for the OS choice, this is a tricky one. Windows is bad because the last thing we need is school mandating an increased entrenchment of MS’s super shit OS. OSX is bad because its foreign to most of the computer using world. And Linux is just a terrible idea because its not even 1/10 as known as OSX, and expecting a kid to learn it when I, a 32 year old man who has been using computers daily since I was six, gave up after failing to get two different Windows boxes to run Red Hat correctly, is just insane. Sure the guys with neck-beards love to say how everyone should be using (insert super L337 build of Linux that nobody but them has heard of) but they are either kidding themselves, or they are just not being honest.
The easy solution is that the parents, if they are going to be forced to drop $1500 on a laptop, should be able to chose whatever OS they want, and the school will have to hire some staff that is actually competent enough to adapt.
Of course if the school staff was competent we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.
Either way…iBooks can be had for under $1000 with the educator discount, so I have no idea why people should be paying half again as much.
One more thing, there is a ton of free stuff that is of infinite worth. In fact, its the shit people pay for that puzzles me. Electric toothbrushes, SUVs, etc. I don’t get it.
“One more thing, there is a ton of free stuff that is of infinite worth”
OK, name one.
I can see why the school choose Apple. There isn’t a platform that can offer the following three benefits:
1. Ease of use
2. Stability
3. Lowest total cost of ownership.
People need to realize two things about our public education system.
A. You get what you pay for.
B Nothing in life is free.
““One more thing, there is a ton of free stuff that is of infinite worth”
OK, name one.
Comment by Steve Newlin — 1/4/2006 @ 7:36 pm”
OK, fucking.
“I can see why the school choose Apple. There isn’t a platform that can offer the following three benefits:
1. Ease of use
2. Stability
3. Lowest total cost of ownership.
1: This was true in the Windows 3.1 days, but really nowadays it seems that your average guy is lost on a Mac simply because people are pretty much born into a Windows environment. Sure, some things are much easier on a Mac, but really nothing is easy anymore considering the breadth of features expected from a computer now, and using a Mac is a learning experience, where as most kids have been clicking on a Start Button since the age of two.
2: No argument there.
3: Um…what? I just put together a PC for by brother and I’m amazed what can had for almost nothing. For less than the price of a Mac mini you can have a machine that is twice as fast if you go the Wintel route. Cost of ownership is something that varies widely with application, but for your average shmuck a Mac is like owning an Audi RS4: Highly advisable if one can afford it, but the POS Chevy is a much better deal.
I use a Mac, and don’t have any Windows machine whatsoever. I’m a huge fan of Apple stuff, and have been since the Mac SE, but I also believe something called reality. Macs are just expensive as hell. Period. A cheap Dell with mouse, keyboard, LCD, DVD-R/W, etc is $100 less than a bare bones, bottom end mac Mini with no input, or output devices at all. OSX updates, as Steve proudly pointed out a keynote, or two ago, are released at a much more rapid rate that Windows versions, and are more often required. Garageband forced me to update from Jaguar…I was pissed about that. Also, when you need a new Mac, you need a whole new machine, where as Wintel boxes can get buy with some new RAM, and a motherboard while still using the same HD, soundcard, etc.
““One more thing, there is a ton of free stuff that is of infinite worth”
OK, name one.
Comment by Steve Newlin — 1/4/2006 @ 7:36 pm”
OK, fucking.
Comment by SignOfZeta — 1/4/2006 @ 9:08 pm
So you met my sister…
I am writing this in OpenOffice and will paste it into my Firefox browser. Both of which cost me only the energy to download them.
***
$1500 for a laptop computer? Ya right, get real. What about the family that has three or even four kids in the district? And what happens when the computer gets stolen / broken / or disabled with a virus or Trojan horse. Is the district buying these wholesale and then retailing them to the parents?
The cost of raising a child may be much more then this. But I also don’t buy my daughter silly or redundant items that she will have no use for. Justify it and I will gladly buy it. Just don’t expect me to throw money away without a good reason. She already has a very good computer with a little keyboard and mouse that fit her six year old hands quite well. I won’t be building her a new one until she has outgrown this one.
A Mac is way overpriced and over powered for most school projects. I am relatively proficient with Windows and could help my child. But I know nothing about OSX.
To me it would make much more sense to lend every family, that doesn’t already have a computer, a desktop. The school could use desktops at the school and any home work that NEEDED to be taken electronically could be burned to a RW CD. Or the teacher could post the homework or assignments on-line and the student could download or verify it from home. They could also submit homework the same way. Hey, wait a minute, don’t several Universities already do it this way?
The Free School Guarantee & The Fullerton Laptop Program
The Fullerton School District’s “Laptops for Learning” program puts Apple iBook laptop computers into the hands of elementary and junior high-aged children at four Fullerton schools, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at a cost of almost $1,500 per child. Fullerton parents (and most recently the ACLU) have questioned whether or not the laptop program violates our children’s right a free public education as guaranteed under the California Constitution.
The controlling case with respect to school fees is the 1984 California Supreme Court case of Hartzell v. Connell. In Hartzell, the Santa Barbara High School District adopted a plan whereby students would be charged $25 for participation on each athletic team and $25 for participation in each other extracurricular activity (drama, voice, band and cheerleading). A lawsuit was filed, which claimed the District’s plan violated California’s free school and equal protection guarantees.
The Hartzell court discussed the history of the free school guarantee in California and its importance to a democratic form of government. They went on to state that “all educational activities – curricular or ‘extracurricular’ – offered to students by school districts fall within the free school guarantee . . . .”
It’s interesting that in attempting to defend charging $1,500 for a laptop computer, the FSD has repeatedly cited that per pupil funding in California is below that of other States. The Santa Barbara High School District also raised issues pertaining to budgetary constraints. However, the Hartzell court dismissed those arguments and indicated “financial hardship is no defense to a violation of the free school guarantee.” The court also stated that equally accessible “public education is not contingent upon the inevitably fluctuating financial health of local school districts. A solution to those financial difficulties must be found elsewhere . . . .”
As the FSD is mandated by law to comply with the free school guarantee as set forth in the California Constitution and the Hartzell case, the laptop program must be offered free of charge. Although the requirement to comply with the free school guarantee may create financial hardships for our public school district, or force them to make tough choices regarding what kinds of programs it can offer, the right to a free public education is too important a right and too precious to be trampled on.
If a public school district cannot afford a particular program, the solution is not to turn to parents to fund their child’s education, as those same parents have already paid for their child’s education through the payment of taxes. To request the parents to pay more would be tantamount to double taxation. The best forum for changes in school fee policies is at the State level (by contacting your State representatives and showing up on election day).
The FSD’s laptop program is not being funded by the District. Instead, the District has turned to parents and required that they pay almost $1,500 in order for their child to participate in the program. Is this a violation of California law? If it is, are you willing to sit idly by while the FSD violates your child’s rights? If you let them charge for a laptop, what next — textbooks? science materials? rent on your child’s desk?
My advice? Demand that the Fullerton School District abide by the law and not force you to pay-to-learn.
Heather Sutherland
Fullerton Parents for Good Public Education
http://www.FullertonParents.org