This is simply untrue, do you have data to demonstrate the Macs are not used in any working industry?

“Usually when such an uncompetitive vendor gets handed such a juicy contract you wonder who was bribed, but the sad fact is there’s probably just a Mac cultist with influence who stitched it up for free.”

Throwing out accusations with no supporting data whatsoever.

Usually when such an uncompetitive vendor gets handed such a juicy contract you wonder who was bribed, but the sad fact is there’s probably just a Mac cultist with influence who stitched it up for free.

We also need to think about whether there is a computer at home. That is very important. To be competitive, today’s student needs their own personal computer at home, that they have sole ownership of.

The families need to realize that there are plenty of homeowners feeling that ~1% property tax increase that don’t even have kids that are paying for their kids education, suck it up, and lease the $25 dollar laptop. It doesn’t matter whether it’s windows or mac, it matters that it’s new enough that it will last 4 years and that it’s at a good price.

25 * 12 * 4 = 1200

It probably won’t even cost them that much, that’s an overestimate. When I was in high school, I had a job where I made quadruple that, easy.

I think the people against this will mainly be middle class people who have already purchased laptops. They should either sell their existing laptops or donate them to less fortunate people. There are low income families who can absolutely not afford laptops, and if they don’t get a deal with the school district, they’re going to go buy one at a rent-a-center for the same price that sucks a lot more and get completely murdered on the deal.

If this was offered at an inner city school, people would be rejoicing. ANYONE can find that $25 dollars a month. If someone can’t find it, we should start a charity for them.

This is just America’s version of one laptop per child. Of course, Americans are going to get laptops without hand cranks.

No standardization because the workstations are commoditized. No repairs necessary like your home TV. School computing should be like changing light bulbs. Do you care what brand of light bulb you use? Do you care if your AC is Trane? Do you know if your network RAID uses Seagate drives?

The site maintenance man should be the go-to guy for hardware problems. At this point in his life, he has fixed as many computer problems as anybody. He should have a mop, a case of computers, and a box of light bulbs.

Yesterday I told my tech that we should buy a bunch of drives to take advantage of case pricing. He says we have no money. This translates to, “We only get to fix things as they break.” which translates to an expensive visit from a repairman because the administrators are locked in a time warp, thinking their machines are about three times expensive as they really are. So when the first computer breaks down, it will cost the same as fixing eight or so.

I think Beverly has a solution for that.

Today’s school needs to be platform agnostic and web service oriented.

I’m an Apple fanboy as most of my kids will tell you but it’s because my Apple labs consistently last twice as long as PC labs furnished by the folks at Dell. But I honestly think I would scream at the top of my lungs if some idiot suggested what Beverley officials want to do.

I have my school on Gmail, Google Docs, and Moodle for the CMS. Now all we need is a lot more boxes.

Adding another link, local school funding is determined by about a 1% property tax increase across a given town:
http://www.massbudget.org/file_storage/documents/Public_School_Funding_FY03.pdf

Don’t forget many property owners either do not have kids, or send their kids to private school.