Los Angeles negotiated a sweet deal for Apple, promising to buy an iPad for every student at a cost that will eventually total at least $1 billion.
Forget the fact that the iPads are financed in large part by borrowing money from a 25-year construction bond issue, and that many schools will not get the repairs and upgrades they need.
Forget the fact that the iPads are loaded with Pearson content that is not yet complete.
Forget the fact that Los Angeles agreed to pay more for the iPads than their retail cost.
Forget the fact that the iPads will be obsolete in three years and the Pearson content is licensed for only three years.
Here is the question: How will Los Angeles pay for new iPads in three years? How can it afford to pay for the iPads it just agreed to buy? How will Los Angeles pay to repair its crumbling schools? Where will it find the money to reduce class sizes, some of which are staggering?
And behind it all is a lingering question: If the Common Core testing must be done online, and if every district in California is required to buy computers and establish the necessary bandwidth for Common Core testing, how many billions of dollars will be spent nationally to pay the cost of Common Core testing? If Los Angeles spent $1 billion, what will it cost for the nation?
One begins to understand why the tech corporations are so enthusiastic about Common Core.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This issue should be brought to the California Attorney General’s office. How is it legal to betray the intentions of the voters and spend school construction bond money on iPads? How does a deal get struck to pay OVER retail price on 1 billion worth of products, unless there were kickbacks, a quid pro quo, or some other impropriety?
The iPads will be obsolete in 3 years. Many of them will get broken, stolen, or lost before then, where will the funds come from to replace those? Where is the evidence that iPads are the best investment for such a huge amount of funds in a needy school district?
It is so sickening to think of all the school children of Los Angeles packed into overcrowded, crumbling classrooms in need of repair, all so the billionaire Apple shareholders can see the stock price go a little higher.
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Great post, says it all in nice plain language.
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In my California district the administrators are piloting a new program called “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device). They encourage elementary and middle school students to bring in their own devices to help with education and instruction. Of course, the district has no liability if devices get broken or get stolen, and they take no responsibility if inappropriate content or sites are accessed and shared amongst students. What?? So now parents have to shell out hundreds to make sure their students have access to information at school? Our family will not participate in this; We don’t have that kind of money and I question whether kids are safe with all that unsupervised internet access.
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Yes, a common complaint is why it appears that LAUSD paid over retail for the iPads. Actually, they didn’t, but the reason for this has just become clear. The total price includes several items not included in the base price. However, the main objection surrounds the Pearson content. The district has refused to disclose the true cost of the Pearson software. The closest they got was a range of $150-300 for the three year contract for math and ELA. Why is LAUSD playing this game? There is a reason. The construction bond language does not allow for curriculum/textbooks. While it might be allowed when outfitting newly built schools, it is understood that outfitting existing schools with new curriculum/textbooks is not allowed.
So, fast forward to the Apple contract. Imbedding the price of the curriculum into the overall cost of the device was an attempt to circumvent the rules of the the construction bond. If Apple had listed the Pearson curriculum as a separate item, the red flags may have gone up much earlier. Was there collusion between Apple, Pearson, Superintendent Deasy and his staff? Can you add two plus two?
Just as an addendum…..it was revealed at the Tuesday meeting that Apple has stock-piled enough iPads to outfit all LAUSD students. The problem is……the iPads are all from the old generation. This revelation presented at the Nov. 5th board meeting, finally ended speculation and confirmed what many had suspected. LAUSD never intended to upgrade the iPads as newer, better models became available such as the new 64-bit recently released iPad Air. Did Apple’s deal include the dumping of excess inventory on a willing LAUSD? Can you add two plus two?
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Well, that would be typical LAUSD M.O. Breakfast in the classroom is simply a huge tax break so Walmart can dump their expired food on LA’s poor kids. You can smell the vermin rotting in the walls of schools these days. Of course, the overpaid private contractors of LAUSD’s recent past were up to the same tricks. One can only hope that there is a special place in hell for Deasy, Broad, Zimmer, Kayser, Galatzan, and the Queen of Obscene, Monica Garcia.
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This is a BOONDOGGLE at the the expense of kids’, teachers’, schools’, and the district’s. It’s reprehensible to say the least. CUI BONO?
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Ahhh…those LA iPads of 2013.
Where have we seen this before?
Two days ago was a day to reflect on the centennial commemoration of the 1913 Los Angeles Aqueduct. UCLA Lab School and Harvard-Westlake graduate and now LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and city bigwigs gathered to mark the anniversary of the huge project that brought water into LA. The “water” allowed the city to expand exponentially, eventually becoming the megalopolis of today.
It is truly an extraordinary story of how modern LA was founded: Murky big business interests that took control of a public trust–water. It is the stuff of legends.
The greatest film about Los Angeles is 1974’s CHINATOWN. It’s instructive to look at it again since we live it time and time again in this west coast city where huge moneyed players loot the public education system.
Of course this CHINATOWN scenario is being played out across the country. All one has to do is look who is lined up on the side of Education Reform–The Dollar Bill Corporations and Millionaire Capitalists who use the robber baron term “Philanthropists” to get a foot hold into cash starved school districts and then use their $ and clout to pry open the coffers.
This is what is now termed as vaunted “public-private” partnerships. This is why almost all local school board races in Anytown, USA are now part of ghastly sums of cash that are raised by “the people” that operate under a thousand mishmash of names Empowered Education Reform for Student First Rights of American Freedom of Parental Trigger Choice Ad Infinitum….That is why school board races all over from now on will be fought with the outside cash of Presidential campaigns.
The contempt for public education, its starvation, its bastardization, its rape…is now seen everywhere in this country. Look at municipal school closings that decimate neighborhoods and do nothing to address the poverty that is conveniently ignored. Look at the rise of Charter Schools whose very existence often pits parent vs. parent, neighborhood vs. neighborhood, class vs. class and teachers vs. teachers. Look at all the education companies that are vying to get a piece of the tremendous federal dollars that should be going to strengthen the schools and communities themselves that gets diverted to the forces of “the market”.
And the entire school community…parents, teachers, kids–ordinary Americans–are all really just pieces of the market–whose success now ultimately rises and falls with factors far beyond our common wherewithal.
Meanwhile, those who got theirs, also get to see to it that things remain unequal. Eric Garcetti, Bill Gates, Rahm Emanuel, Arne Duncan, Barack Obama…your kids get it all at the schools THEY attend.
Congratulations guys.
And my kids? Oh yeah…they get an iPad–I mean the, what’s the term you call it? Oh yeah. The Gamechanger.
Even worse, you say that with a straight face to my kids. Shows them exactly what you think of them.
LA’s iPad deal is everything that is wrong with the Reformers notion of what contemporary public education should be.
In this country, Education, like Water, was once considered belonging to “the people”. What Jack Nicholson as the dogged moralist Private Detective Jake Gittes discovered in CHINATOWN is who “the people” really are.
Smiling mosquito net-giving Bill Gates.
Itune lovin’ Apple Corporation.
Your testing prep friends at Pearson Testing.
The good guys of ALEC.
Last week, after the LA School Board voted to retain and EXTEND John Deasy’s contract, the “liberal” LA Times columnist Sandy Banks wrote favorably about the decision: “It’s Deasy’s personality, not his projects, that seems to turn people off.” Yes, Ms. Banks, John Deasy’s “personality” is not the sort I’d want as my neighbor nor as a member of my family–obnoxious, arrogant, self-aggrandizing and self-righteous, forever pointing fingers of blame at everyone else, aggressive, mean-spirited and petulant. He is certainly no “personality” role model for what I want my kids to emulate.
But okay…granted, personality is one thing and it’s a big world and one can often times find ways to get around people like John Deasy. But Ms. Banks, it is indeed HIS PROJECTS that are the things that are dangerous and not for the public good. In fact, his “projects” are exactly the things I reject as a teacher for how I want my kids to learn.
Again, it is the willingness of so-called progressive people to tell other people with their children what is good and acceptable for them. I do not know Ms. Banks, but if she believes that a John Deasy school is what is good for education, I would really like to know if she would be willing to put her kids in that sort of system? The education that Deasy proffers is antithetical to the one he received and who knows his own daughter, but my black and Latino and Asian and working class kids it is what THEY need?
Here people! We think you should have a McDonalds’ education because it is what YOU need. We’re over here at the healthy, organic restaurant with our kids. I’ll bet that restaurant you are eating at isn’t packed to the gills with “customers” (about as loathsome a term that LAUSD has EVER come up for “students” but one that sums up their business model of education), has clean bathrooms, state-of-the-art equipment, lots of food choices and plenty of opportunities to see other healthy restaurants all over the world.
If you really think that Deasy’s PROJECTS are good, you subject your own kids to them and have them “eat” there.
To the LA Times and Sandy Banks: Who are the people who support John Deasy? Well, to paraphrase Mitt Romney, “Corporations are People.” While real front-line teachers were in their classrooms and parents at their jobs, the corporations personified as “the people” showed up outside LAUSD headquarters to buttress Deasy and his policies. That manufactured consent that was bought and paid for by the modern day land grabbers who supported the 1913 Aqueduct. They go by the names of United Way, Chamber of Commerce and Students First…all people with easy access to City Hall.
With the LAUSD School Board again taking up the iPad issue, it seems all the members are now behind it. This is so depressing and dispiriting because it truly does sum up what these individuals (and last line of defense) believe our students most need. If you agree with this proposition (I won’t even bother to bring up their term of “Civil Rights Issue” because it’s offensive beyond any measure), then you and I will never agree on what kind of education kids need and are most useful/purposeful for them as human beings (not just “customers”).
We are all on the hook for the iPads in LA. They have taken on a life of their own. The Reformers have put Pearson and iPad central to their notion of the education my kids should get. It is so lame and unimaginative. For the record, I’m not anti-technology and LOVE the internet for all the amazing things it can do and the kids should definitely be aware of all its dazzling possibilities.
But it is NOT central to their education. It is central, however, to the bank accounts of MANY BUSINESS INTERESTS who exploit my kids, my time as a teacher, my professional oath for the purpose of serving my kids with THEIR crappy Happy Meals.
As a parent, I’m appalled by these educational nutritionists on the LAUSD Board spending this amount of money to give my kids this sort of food.
Why CHINATOWN is such a memorable film is that unlike most American films, its ending is unsparing in its bleakness. The bad guys win. For them, it’s an American success story.
For us, well, we get screwed. Yes indeed, a true Gamechanger, but not for the betterment of our communities and our kids.
And the advice that Jake Gittes is given as he watches this horrifying travesty of justice…?
“Forget it, Jake; it’s Chinatown.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v_BVNGAfYM
It would be easy to say, “Forget it, Jake. it’s LAUSD.” But It is hard for us to forget the 650,000 kids who depend on the “water” that now is controlled by John Deasy and the black money and the titans of business that are behind his policies.
Don’t get me started again on their personalities.
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Geronimo, your rhapsodic rant made my day. I always enjoy your passionate out bursts. It is very nauseatng to witness John Deasy being indulged and defended after the copious culpability he has for endangering small children, abusig teachers, firing them illegally, lying, helping himself to money from school funda, wasting his time with drama, drama, drama, and just being allowed to step all over all of us without any consequencea. If offered a winning lotto ticket worth $50 million or the opportunity to watch Deasy and Broad shuffled to an indictment in an orange jumpsuit and chains, I would choose the indictment. I need justice more than money.
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a tour de force~ thank you Geronimo!
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If a district requires iPads or the like, then let the parents buy them.
The district I taught in for 18 years was in as economically disadvantaged a community as any in the US, but when I switched my English students (many were in section 8 housing) to online writing/editing since that was what they’d need to learn for college, they miraculously came up with devices; laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Giving away iPads is neither economically nor educationally smart. When parents are engaged in their children’s learning, it’s a win/win situation. If they’re apathetic or looking for handouts, they get the educational system they deserve.
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$1 billion [and counting] for iPads? Another example of how the thoughtless frenetic pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$ at any cost to the general public [exemplified by Broad Academy graduate and rheephormista John Deasy] substitutes for the thoughtful self-critical pursuit of sustainable “better education for all.”
For folks supposedly enamored of hard data and metrics, the edubullies and educrats have a proven record of incompetence in handling numbers and stats in an effective and productive way but they are experts in massaging and misusing them.
And even some of their staunchest supporters are backing down a bit on the Sacred Mantras of the Holy Edumetrics. See today’s LATimes editorial board statement:
Link: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-metrics-deasy-evalutation-lausd-20131107,0,7499822.story#axzz2jz9eHsb1
Apparently there was an epiphany: “Progress should be measured. Data matter. But rigid adherence to them is counterproductive.”
From the mouths of babes…
😎
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The LA Times, after publicly printing the scores of teachers, and branding teachers as failures for years, is only rethinking this because their ox is now the one being gored. John Deasy did not meet his stated goals in almost every metric that he himself set up. So now, amazingly, they say perhaps our adherence to rigid metrics just may be not such a swell thing. Puhleese.
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All should read the following article on why reading from paper is better for learning than reading from a screen: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-reading-brain-in-the-digital-age-why-paper-still-beats-screens
Yes, it’s Scientific American so it should have at least a little credibility.
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They are increasing police line item in general fund to protect the iPads. Still no increase for nurses.
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Nurses? We don’t need no stinkin nurses!!
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Nurses??!! Are you mad? There is ONE restroom open for children in schools that serve over 1,000 students. Worse yet, kids are given detention because the toilets overflow when they flush, due to overuse. What the heck. It just adds to the stench from the rats rotting in schools walls from breakfast in the Classroom and the fleas in the old, decaying carpets that are never shampooed.
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My Catholic school will be piloting that in 3rd-8th grades starting in January. I’m betting that I have to do it next year with my 1st graders.
A number of my students do not have their own device. I can just see an excited student grabbing another’s device and accidentally breaking it. Technology does have its proper place in education; I can show my students things like real Indian powwows. Enough is enough though.
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Deasy didn’t bother to think about these “rather important questions” raised by Ravitch because he knows he can “push the eject button” at any point and even get a golden parachute in the deal should things crash and burn at his feet.. you know “things” like the LAUSD… for him… no big deal. And in fact, there is probably another “corporate ed-backed” job waiting for him as the example set by many of his peers… thinking about Hite and Rhee. Ughh!
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LA Board of Deasy is in denial. Denial of the opposition of taxpayers to this program. Denial of the fact that taxpayers will not fund another bond measure that is used in an inappropriate way such as the ipad purchase. Denial that this program will indebted us for years to the detriment of class size reduction, raises for teachers after seven years. Denial that our current schools can not be maintained with no repair and refurbishment funds. Wake up board of Deasy, just as he will leave, so can you, well before you are ready.
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A: where there is confusion there is profit. That about explains it. Sadly, truly.
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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/i-cannot-live-without-books-quotation
“I cannot live without books; but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.”
– Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 10 June 1815[1]
Ipads….Schools are buying them..kids are breaking them..losing them…stealing them..
Not ready for this yet except in the classroom…Keep the Ipads in the classroom and use for resources..really should not replace a book….not yet…just too soon..and price is too high…
I use my I-pad for news etc resources..games..etc..but when I am in the sand or under a tree..I take my book….then recycle it..or sell it or give it away..
I get nutty when I try to do everything on the computer or I-Pad..
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Buy any computer or I-Pad today and within a week….it is outdated..
The school systems like to publicize that they are utilizing technology for Political Purposes..
You must wait until it is feasible and economically sound to let the students take them home..
Most students already have them but have to share with siblings….
Our state has not adopted any new textbooks since the year 2000 because they think tech is the way to go….it will be one day…but today is not the day…. I think it is in the near future…
This Race to the Top has been taken literally by so many States..
Race…Race…race..and you are going to fall flat on your Behinds..
Technology needs to level off..Guarantee you that a device will be created that will be not so expensive and will work even better than the I-Pad..
it is Common Sense but these Common Core people are just looking for the students to pass an ig****norra**nt test so they will spend all sorts of money before thinking things through..
I was always taught that you seek ‘Quality..not Quantity”
Everyone on this Common Core Train Wreck are looking for Higher Test Scores and Poltical Power and $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
That’s all Folks..
Porky Pig
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Reblogged this on Middletown Voice and commented:
Diane just hit a nerve with Pearson and Bill Gates who we see behind education reform in Indiana. Why are they so eager to replace public schools? Why do they want common core?
Los Angeles will be letting us know, but you might want to just read Diane’s post so you won’t have to wait. She writes,
“If the Common Core testing must be done online, and if every district in California is required to buy computers and establish the necessary bandwidth for Common Core testing, how many billions of dollars will be spent nationally to pay the cost of Common Core testing? If Los Angeles spent $1 billion, what will it cost for the nation?
One begins to understand why the tech corporations are so enthusiastic about Common Core.”
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This is part of the plan to bankrupt LAUSD, just like other urban school districts around the country. LAUSD has NEVER cared for the education of urban youth. Everyone involved in the ipad scam should be imprisoned, but of course, lawlessness reigns supreme in our fine city and the nation as a whole, for that matter. Perhaps the younger generations will be able to turn things around after they have suffered decades and decades of devastation caused by greed and avarice. I’m thinking that by 2050, things may start to turn around….
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