Red Queen in LA writes a snappy and irreverent blog.
This post is her best ever, or at least the best I have read.
In it, she decimates the decision by Los Angeles school officials to spend $500 million on iPads–using money from bonds that will be paid off in 25 years–and another $500 million to upgrade the schools for Internet connectivity, plus $38 million for keyboards, plus untold millions for professional development and other unforeseen needs, at a time when teachers are laid off, class sizes are huge, facilities are crumbling, and programs are cut.
This was not a wise decision for many reasons, she argues. For one thing, “tablets” are no substitute for computers:
We all know this about tablet “computers”: they are not real “working” machines. When I proposed buying a tablet for my student the dude behind the counter told me: “Don’t do it. You’ll have to buy a keyboard, it has way less memory and no ports, a smaller screen and slower speed: it’s just not what a serious student needs. By the time you’re done adding on, you’ll have a machine almost as expensive as a real computer with far less functionality”.
Any parent will have received that advice from just about any computer salesman. And while there are a few serious students out there who no doubt feel otherwise, I think it’s a fairly safe bet that the word on the street is: tablets are no substitute for a computer; students need computers.
But she is even more outraged that the district leaders pulled a bait and switch, first asking voters for permission to sell 25-year bonds to repair the schools, then using that money to buy tablets with a short lifespan. She writes:
“A fool and his money are soon parted”; common sense dictates a little skepticism be employed in warding off financial chicanery. There are so many get-rich – excuse me, get-“smart”-quick schemes floating about EdReform/Common Core Land that their sheer volume belies legitimacy.
No one purchases a car with a 30-year loan. Long-term financial “instruments” are intended for a more “durable” purchase like, say, a house. Or a school building. If you purchased your Honda Civic with a house mortgage, you would find yourself paying for that auto to the tune of several times its original worth, a dozen years or longer beyond when it was melted into candlesticks. How does it make sense that LAUSD stakeholders should be purchasing ephemeral electronic equipment with long-term constructionbonds? Where’s the common sense in hoodwinking tax-payers with such a scheme that doesn’t even seem legal? When will the average voter ever agree again to finance any child’s public educational needs when there are only foxes in charge of the hen house?
And more:
Maybe this is all more complicated than it seems. But since it was we taxpayers who invoked the common sense solution of approving bond money to maintain school facilities sufficiently, we deserve transparency regardingdecisions that reverse course on how this money is spent. And we deserve legal redress should the caretakers of our money not spend it according to our wishes.
Our children need teachers — more teachers — who can conduct school within classrooms of a manageable, teachable size. Our children need a village-worth of support staff to enable and assist those teachers to engage their learners. Our children need to attend school in facilities that are clean, commodious, safe and stimulating. Diverting funds from rank-bottom pedagogical necessities in favor of frivolous electronics in service of opaque commercial ends, just makes no Common Sense.
Very well stated. It’s so obvious that it’s hard to understand why the misuse of public funds even happens in the first place. A school district that uses bond money for purchases of items other than what the bonds were purchased for is immoral.
How long have you worked in LAUSD? Those who run this district have done so with one thing in mind- corporate profits. They have enjoyed kickbacks from contractors and corporations since, forever. I was at the board meeting (around 10 years ago) when they approved massive funding for the Belmont Complex, even though there were dozens of speakers testifying that the land was toxic. David Tokofsky and Jose Huizar were no different than Monica Garcia. There was also a group of parents from a school in east LA who were assured by Tokofsky, Huizar, and Roy Romer that the toxic landfill their children’s school was built on had been cleaned up. Just like the Love Canal, I suppose. The ipad debacle is nothing compared to the shenanigans of former supes and board members. (truth). If you don’t know that LAUSD was designed for profiteers to steal from poor children, than you are either new to the district or need an education, yourself. Marguerite La Motte and Julie Korenstein have always been the only board members who are not corrupt. As for Ratliff and Kayser, time will tell. Vladovic is not bad, but Zimmer is a UTLA dolt.l
Classic Oxymoron the title of the post: Common Core and Common Sense. The only thing they have in common is the word common.
Common Sense was lifted from my post about the high literacy levels in the colonies in that everyone had a copy of Tom Paine’s “Common Sense” without a stinkin’ school system or “Common Core”. A little knowledge can be dangerous. “decimation” can not be used with ideas or concepts, such as “She decimates the decision by..” but nouns i.e. people, place or things, as “the numbers of teachers will be decimated with Common Core”.
“. . . plus untold millions. . .”
How much is the interest on $500 million in bonds over 25 years? Help me out TE, help me out (or anyone else that knows how to compute the interest).
Kids need authentic literature and more libraries
not police in the classrooms, as these devices “disappear”
and have to be replaced.
Here is an importance piece from Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/when-high-school-students-are-treated-like-prisoners-20130912
I sent one of my kids to a Catholic High School (to get him out of all the mind-numbing test prep that was driving him to tears in public school) and last year the school purchased Google Chrome Books for all students. The Archdiocese was quite upset that the school didn’t go with an I-Pad as the other Archdiocese schools did. However, our school did its research and determined that the Google Chrome Book was better because it was more flexible, included a keyboard, and allowed access to a much wider variety of textbooks than the tablets. The school no longer uses hard copy texts, but rather purchases only digital copies and the Google Chrome Book allows the school to use the higher level texts that can’t be put on an I-Pad or other tablets. (The school is convinced that accountability measures used in the public schools have caused the textbook companies to dumb down most high school texts.) The biggest problems to date are that kids figured out quickly how to bypass security so they could look at non-approved web material and that kids have problems drawing figures when taking classes such as Chemistry or Physics. At first, the Chrome Book screens kept breaking, but Google worked closely with the school and soon provided more durable screens. Google is also working to provide a more durable casing. Nevertheless, the school anticipates students will need to replace the Chrome Book every other year. This is not a problem as a non-public school can have the families purchase Chrome Books when necessary. Since families have always purchased books, the cost of a Google Chrome Book is not unreasonable to ask since the families no longer have to purchase hard copy texts. Of course this is not the case for a public school, but something public schools need to take into consideration. And by the way, the kids were not entirely entranced by the Google Chrome Books. Many preferred traditional textbooks; others resented the teachers being able to spy on them with the software embedded in the Chrome Book. Also, in order to use the technology effectively, so that teachers aren’t suckered into doing nothing but having kids watch You-Tube videos, the school had teachers take lots of training classes. The school also undertook a construction project to completely redesign the library to make it more conducive for using technology; the school got rid of all but absolutely necessary hard copy books since everything else could be found on-line. Google and other companies work closely with the school to provide advice and help on building design, Chrome Book problems, and training. The school undertook a lot of research to pull off the switch to digital instruction and then tested the new system for a semester before taking the plunge completely.
So sad. The Church had always been the last bastion against the ignorant hordes with their monasteries. I went to a Catholic HS. Attended a party recently with 15 brothers who had left the order.
What are the protocols for defrocking the bishop or has he investments there? “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to education the things that are …..
It looks like our libraries are headed towards the same destiny as the Library of Alexandria –and what a huge loss that was for the world.
We are being told that children will be taking their iPads home. Has anyone considered the safety issues of sending a child walking through the neighborhood with a $700 electronic toy in his backpack?
And what about children who do not have wireless internet service–or any internet service–at home? What about children who do not have a home? There are over 15,000 homeless students in LAUSD, according to one estimate.
Good point.
Bring me back to the days when bullies stole lunch money.
GREAT article and I LOVE the title. My school will be a Bring Your Own Device school starting in January. Participation by teachers is optional for now. I teach first grade. I told my principal that I’d be willing to sit in on the PD sessions she’s doing with the participating teachers but that I’m not ready to deal with the time taking problems this will bring in a first grade classroom. I need that time to TEACH! Parents will have to sign a waiver stating that the school and school employees are not responsible for items that are damage, but in reality, we all know that parents won’t be happy when their child’s device is snatched or broken by another child or possibly even their own.
If the bond committee of LAUSD approved this purchase along with the board of education and the online educated superintendent, their jobs should be discontinued.
I think there’s much more info to be revealed about this whole situation in LA. Here’s a petition for an investigation: LAUSD’s iPad Deal: iPaid Too Much? http://bit.ly/19qHZ1d
Misappropriation of funds. These people need to be fired. Electronics can’t teach. They are simple tools to be used.
This is off-topic, and pedantic, and I recognize that language is always in flux, but I’m compelled to implore anyone reading this comment to not use “decimate” as a synonym for “utterly destroy.” Just one of those items on my pet-peeve short list.
or at least in proper context “at the end of the day”
To decimate is to kill every tenth soldier in a Legion if the Legion did a bad job fighting, or to kill every tenth prisoner to force the rest to talk. It is hardly ever used these days in harmony with its etymological meaning.
Right, that’s the meaning I always have in mind, which is why I never have occasion to use the word. I would cut people more slack on this if the mathematics weren’t right there on the face of the word.
Take a moment to consider LAUSD’s i-Pad purchase in light of the District promise to focus “on The Arts!”
Uh, yeah.
Artists need robust photo-editing, drawing, composing, rendering, designing and animation software. This software is developed for fully-functional computers. Ain’t gonna happen on an i-Pad. That’s not the PURPOSE of the i-Pad. Or a smart-phone, for that matter.
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> IMHO: Single user i-Pads loaded with proprietary testing software don’t advance anything except the publishers profits. Even if all textbooks are eventually replaced by e-books sparing Districts the need to buy and store paper texts, students won’t learn to be tech-savvy or creative in the broader sense. They need to get their hands on college/work quality software, practicing their own scripting and coding, creating blogs and wikis and multitasking among apps.
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> I suspect there is also blocker software on each i-Pad to prevent kids from getting to questionable or illegal content. At home or in class. I’d like to see if the kids learn to block the data gathering these devices apparently accommodate. I’ll re-read the document to see if that is mentioned..hm.
That’s a really good point about the safety concerns in addition to liability for damage. I teach 7th grade math in a city school. I’m good with technology – tablets, laptops, SmartBoard, and other classroom technology – and think it’s great to be able to use computers with students, but feel like there is a major overemphasis on the need for technology for students to learn.
In my school we have been forced to use a “text” which has mainly online resources – including the book – which is put out by the same company that creates the state test. Anyway, even when the the teachers all attempted to log into the site, the service was extremely slow… and we’re supposed to have 30 students on laptops using this site. It’s not user friendly and even my students wish they had textbooks. They use technology constantly when they are outside of school, so it’s not engaging to them anymore.
When the students were given an old textbook that covers the same material they were thrilled. I find students prefer working with something tangible – even flipping through pages to find the answer to a question or a sample problem gives them satisfaction – as opposed to typing a question into a search engine.
So much money is being spent on technology – we pretty much can’t use paper. We have to supply our own paper and usually print from home because the copiers break down constantly (yay technology). We’re supposed to be “green” but students need to use paper to write problems down and work through problems so they end up using paper anyway.
Technology is a wonderful thing but we all soon learn that it can’t stand alone and the cost is always far higher than the purchase price of the equipment. In many cases it ends up being a distraction. Students have told me that their I-Pad is just a distraction because their teacher doesn’t know what to do with it. Schools and the communities that hopefully support them must have a relationship built on trust and open communication. More often than not that relationship is ruined by the failure of a “best practice” idea not being properly researched and money becoming a problem rather than an asset. Yes, common sense is very often missing, and that feeds the fire for those people who want reform. I also feel that state legislators encourage these bad investments by cutting general fund operations funding pushing schools into using bonds and debt to make perhaps a good idea into a bad one.