Ramon Cortines, interim superintendent of schools in Los Angeles, said that the district can’t afford to buy iPads or computers for every student and staff member. This is a repudiation of his predecessor John Deasy’s signal initiative, which was couched as a civil rights issue.
“Los Angeles Unified School Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said Friday the district cannot afford to provide a computer to every student, signaling a major reversal for his predecessor’s ill-fated $1.3-billion effort to distribute iPads to all students, teachers and school administrators.
“Instead, Cortines said, the L.A. Unified School District will try to provide computers to students when needed for instruction and testing.
“I don’t believe we can afford a device for every student,” said Cortines, who added that the district never had a fleshed-out framework for how the devices would be used in the classroom and paid for over time.
“Education shouldn’t become the gimmick of the year,” Cortines said in a meeting Friday with several reporters.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And in the meantime, they’ve spent close to a billion buying I-pads that are mostly warehoused, as well as updating wi-fi in the schools, and squandered any kind of trust from the public by snatching repair bond money for this self-serving pet project. The repercussions will be felt for years.
I cannot imagine who so many high-profile people thought this was a good idea.
I just think that it is amazing. You would hope someone somewhere along the line would ask about borrowing that long to buy something that depreciates.
Forget “ed reform”. Even outside disagreeing with that agenda It means he’s a horrible manager and a terrible steward of public funds. There had to be people who knew this was really reckless and ill-advised but were afraid to say anything. The adult version of peer pressure.
The computer for all as a civil rights issue was just a scam by DZ and his corporate buddies. Privateers want public monies in education and this appeal was their way to get in, indebt the district, enrich themselves and make sure their was no money to repair our public schools. At least Cortines finally admitted it but there is politics in that he has adversarial negotiations with the teachers union and he can cry poor and say he doesn’t have money for raises. LAUSD’s situation financially will not be known until a forensic audit is done on it. During negotiations with unions, the district always fails to disclose its true finances.
“The cost to date: $114 million, which covers devices, keyboards, charging carts, testing devices, and the laptop pilot program for 21 high schools” Ramon Cortines, Nov 2014.
They have not spent close to a billion on IPads as yet. Don’t make up your own facts.
1.2 billion left to repair schools? If true, that would be good news. How much is contractually binding? That is the fact that matters most.
Raj,
The $114 million came from a bond issue dedicated to construction and repair of schools. You ok with that?
Raj – your calendar is out of date. It’s now February, 2015. Not a dime more has been spent since November? If nothing else, interest on the bonds?
In any case, yeah, you’re right, only a hundred million and some change. Nothing to worry about – water under the bridge. Probably nothing better that hundred million could have been spent on anyway, right?
Raj Acharya,
I happen to agree that it was only $114 million dollars that got wasted: All taxpayer money, all bonds meant for something else. I can see you sitting side by side with Joyce Bejar formerly of “The View” and declaring, “$114 million? Okay . . . . . but SO WHAT! WHO CARES? Who really cares?!”
To you, $114 million dollars may not seem worth much.
But your ignorance and lack of true critical thinking – for the sake of making me laugh – are priceless.
Raj (TE recycled?), you are the new Harlan Underhill, minus the articulation and saucy tone Harlan had.
Raj, you have so much talent in a talentless sort of way. You need your own (lack of) reality show . . . . . .
I don’t know what you think you could do with $114 million, but I sure know I would purchase at least $100,000 worth of guided reading books, levels “A” to 10 for all the kindergartners in my school to use in class and to borrow to take home to practice reading. Although they are doing very well in their reading development, these children are starved for more literature and love to read, thanks to the faculty, principal and assistant principal.
If you think $114 million is not so bad, would you care to personally donate an even more minuscule amount of $100,000 to my school?
We will name the cafeteria after you with your portrait hanging above the door.
Or would you prefer a bronzed likeness?
C’mon, Raj! Are you in?
I just corrected a serious error and that is all. I never said that 114 million is nothing.
Yesterday it was disclosed that Ramon Cortines spent another 29 million after John Deasy resigned. Cortiness also stated that he was for it when the idea was originally conceived (he was the assistant superintendent at that time) and now he regrets supporting it. Yesterday he cancelled the rest of the program. That mean there will be no additional I-Pad purchases by LAUSD to equip each student of LAUSD. It does not mean that they will not use more devices for testing as stated by Cortines yesterday.
And Diane, I was not the one who approved the use of bond funds, the Board of Education (democratically elected body) did it. Are you against democracy in addition to meritocracy and testocracy? Is this the terror you are talking about?
And finally Robert Rendo you are full of it.
FYI, cortines was a lackey in NYC and like all these ‘experienced chancellors that circulate around the 15,880 districts in this nation, he was incompetent and corrupt… so perfect to move on to LAUSD, like the inept Crew did to Florida.
If you want the real news about LAUSD, go here, but know this, the publisher of this site is a brilliant person who has chronicled the truth about LAUSD and blew the whistle on the social promotion there… It is a good place for you to learn what is really afoot in LAUSD
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/10/post-4.htmlto Perdaily.com
Seriously Raj… don’t you have better things to do, then enter a teacher’s room where FACTS rule the conversations, and egos get checked at the door.
You must think this is like the social media blogs where everyone with rectal tissues and an opinion puffs themselves up as a pundit or authority. Yes, argument is the metier here, but like the news site where I write, observable reality serves the purpose, and people who attacking the person, rather than the argument (as you did with Robert) define themselves; get a hobby, or join a blog where people love to hear the reverberations of their own voice.
Raj,
Nothing I wrote implied that you were responsible for Deasy’s decision to spend construction bond funds on iPads. You are a newcomer to the blog. I have written many posts about the misuse of bond funds for iPads. You were never mentioned.
Susan Lee Schwartz
Remember I stated nothing but the the facts. Robert and others attacked me first and now it is fair game. Do you dispute this?
Raj, I haven’t got time for such conversations. Go to my author’s page
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
and read my articles, Bamboozle Them:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html
and Magic elixir are a good place to start.
Then click on the quick links and commentary buttons, and see what I post about many things, but mostly about education, since my experience with the first assault on teachers in the nineties, when this happened.
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
The public schools everywhere are going down fast, and THAT Raj is what Diane’s site brings to the conversation… so I post links at my series 15,880/50
Just understand what this blog is about, so that you do not attack wonderful voices like that of Robert Rendo.
This is a serious place, Raj.
That might be the cost for expenditures on the iPad but bond monies are being spent on repair of the failed MSIS system which includes outside consultant pay. Who knows what other activities besides school repair these bond funds are underwriting. We actually don’t know how the bond monies are being spent and how much is left. The district definitely won’t fess up.
Raj,
You ‘re not being fair. This is the second time I have said something positive about your thinking and writing. I have NEVER discouraged you from writing into this blog. In fact, I have done the opposite and have explained precisely why.
Thanks a lot, Raj! I thought you and I were going to be friends. Harlan never ignored me and never complained to the host about my critiques of his reasoning. I am sorry to see him leave.
Last I heard about Harlan (he swore I was a communist and socialist), he and his Tea Party were advocating for non-compulsory education in the United States. But I have no idea about the veracity of what I heard.
This is a very grave set of issues with a very serious host who is a scholar in education history. A complete absence of a tiny bit of light humor every once in a rare while would, I think, would be a mistake. There might be many who disagree with me on that one, but, hey, I’ve not been kicked off this blog as of now. In that sense, Harlan abdicated his duties.
I am hoping you will not. Your anti-public school, anti-union, and anti-teacher raves are exactly what people like me need and thrive upon as part of a set of motivations to fight the reform movement.
Now dry your tears, and here: you can take my entire box of Kleenex and blow your nose while you’re at it. If you continue to tantrum like this, I’m going to have to call mommy and daddy in for a meeting, and the four of us can sit and discuss a behavioral management plan that would be productive to your conduct. What about a book of stickers? Do you like Power Ranger stickers, Raj?
Let’s start again, Raj:
LAUSD authorities, its local politicians and John Deasy made some bad mistakes. The mistakes cost a lot of money. They misappropriated funds by using bonds that were written one way and spent another. They did this with no transparency and no democratic process. The forged ahead unilaterally without any parent or teacher voice. Taxpayers were faced with derision, for those who even knew what was going on. Principals in those schools were likely to have been laughed at when they tried to voice their concerns.
In addition, the operating and environmental systems of iPads are greatly flawed, producing all sorts of glitches that slow down transmission and make navigating difficult. These not so readily fixable features would have countered the productivity of students and teachers, not to mention that the apps for the iPads were not properly vetted to see if they were educationally sound. There were no real maintenance contracts for these devices, nor was there money built in to update software and apps that required subscriptions.
This was a boastful, horse-and-pony show of an action on Deasy’s behalf to scream loudly and clearly to the overclass out there: “Look at us! We are LAUSD and we are technologically savvy and progressive, and ahead of everyone else. We are SO cool!!!!” without ANY of the critical thinking on how to implement such technology in a way that would be judicious and PURPOSEFUL to LAUSD students and those who teach them. But you would know all about that, Raj, since you are a teacher in a public school with low income students.
Raj is a teacher . . . .
(I can’t believe I have to explain and spoon feed these things to you . . . . )
Raj, at this point, Chloe and Kim Kardashian would probably have more profound things to say about public education than you.
And yes, you are correct in saying that I am full of it. In fact, I am bursting with it, and cannot seem to contain the laughter I derive from your acutely uninformed – and I think well intentioned – contentions.
Lighen up Raj. Take some valerian.
Just be you . . . .
It’s great for people like me . . . . .
Hee, hee; yes a little levity is welcome.
You are so cool, Robert. How lucky this teacher’s room is to have you.
You handled this as any of us would when faced with an enthusiastic, passionate student who was so ignorant as to be clueless, but needy for attention, and used to throwing a tantrum when confronted with the facts.
I wonder at the response Raj will make. Hopefully, he will make none, and read here for a while, as I did before I began to write here. I had corresponded with Diane and Anthony over the decade, read her books, and often read her posts here, but was busy writing at Oped and pursuing my travel writing and photography.
http://issuu.com/gurneysinn/docs/slsmagmed
I connected my email to th RSS feed, and read everyone for a month…including Harlan… who did his thing soon after I began to talk here, as you know.
I ignored him and wondered why you guys tolerated him, and bothered to respond.
Then he attacked ME, for not answering one of his barbed questions.
So, I responded… and the rest you know.
I did not seriously read the controversial material which Raj posted. I knew all I wanted to know about LAUSD, and have been following LAUSD since 2011, ever since Lenny Isenberg invited me, Diane, Randi, Jo Scott Coe, and other educators to see how the process for breaking tenure was working in LAUSD.
http://www.perdaily.com/2013/10/why-does-utla-continue-to-support-lausds-violation-of-california-teacher-dismissal-process.html
I posted this on his blog, the process as I experienced it in NYC at the height of a stellar career. Look at the date
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-propor
tions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
Lenny was a whistle blower on social promotion, and his elegant essays on this subject can be found in the search field. Here is one, . Raj needs to look at the date.
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/social-promotion–lausds-prime-mover-for-continued-and-predictable-student-failure–do-they-really-w.html
They led this man who speaks four languages, and loves kids, loves to inform young minds, from his classroom in handcuffs, one of the more dramatic ending to the classroom practice of wonderful teachers, whose tenure could not be broken if the law was looking on. He is now, suing LAUSD, rather than settling, and works a few days a week at a Yeshiva, rents his house, so she can bring in enough to keep going.
http://www.perdaily.com/2013/11/lausd-gives-me-a-chance-to-be-a-hero-for-student-teachers-and-families.html
Lenny wanted to do what Diane has accomplished here… remember how he pitched his site to me…a place where teachers from across the nation can meet, talk and learn that they are facing a coordinated conspiracy.
Anyway, there is a titmouse eating seeds on my window sill, it is a Currier and Ives painting outside my window, and if you message me at Oped with your email, I will send you some photos. I win awards for my work, but I have not put up a site… to busy reporting the war on public education.
Susan,
Thank you for your note and the links. Lenny is an interesting guy.
I did write to you from my e-mail recently, and will try and write again to your Oped address.
Even though you are no longer teaching at the NYCDOE, I admire how you still want to battle in this war to protect public education. It would be easy just to sit back and collect your well deserved, modest pension and never look back at what has become a horrific situation.
But you still carry on . . . . just like Norm Scott of Education Notes. I am in awe of people like you and Norm for keeping on keeping on . . . .
Raj, you must get out from beneath the covers of your bed, get into your pajamas, and come downstairs to give mom and dad a hug good night . . . . .
Watch them lay off thousands of veteran teachers they have no plans to bring back into the classroom . Teachers and students alwatys feel the cuts, the corruption, the incompetence. The suits down town are impervious to scrutiny and the plutocrats act with impunity. So teachers are disposable, students are assets who can be come collatorial damage thanks to budget cuts, experiments orchestrated by billionaires and the community continies to slide into poverty. Skid row has nothing but growth and when I consider how Deasy painted pictures of homeless kids in their tent on the sidewalk doing homework on the ipads, I want to throw up. what a castastrophic farce.
I would like to know where the EVIDENCE
based research regarding the effectiveness of the I Pad program under the Deasy Reign of Terror. Cortines is right on this one.
Gee. What a surpise: Look at the dates… all this goes on and is out in the open.
http://www.perdaily.com/2013/10/lausds-ipad-fiasco.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/lausds-30-million-dollar-killer-ipad-deal.html
First, I don’t believe their figure of $114 million. Second, that doesn’t include the continuing cost of millions of dollars each year taken from the GENERAL FUND to hire tech support and administrators to oversee all this overpriced equipment. This was and continues to be a huge waste of taxpayers money at a time when LAUSD says they can’t afford to hire more counselors, nurses, or teachers, or clean and repair our schools. The only people who benefited from this, as with the $25 million per WEEK being spent to fix MISIS, are the tech companies and the future careers of the scheming bureaucrats who sold out our kids.
Steven Perez: you are right to be cautious and skeptical.
For example, in the online version of a day-old LATIMES piece re legacy of John Deasy there are 39 comments, including this one from a Carl J. Petersen. Note that the first line is his citation of a comment by someone else on the thread:
[start reader’s comment]
“What’s rarely mentioned by challengers is Deasy’s role in rising test scores, increased graduation rates and reduced student suspensions within the L.A. Unified School District.”
As a businessman who has experience in working with data, I know when someone is manipulating metrics. I, therefore, addressed these so-called successes in a blog published after the former Superintendent was forced to resign in disgrace:
“Perhaps the Board was fooled by the Superintendent’s mastery at manipulating metrics. Like a magician, he can receive credit for reducing suspensions if he can divert attention from the fact that he also led the effort to “ban defiance as grounds for suspension.” Yes, the district will continue to increase graduation rates but Deasy also fought to reduce “the number of credits to graduate from 230 to 170.” In his resignation letter, he focuses on “AP Course Takers” without ever mentioning how many students actually took, or passed, the AP test. Increasing attendance rates are sited while an audit of the district’s reports has shown that, even before MiSiS, they were not accurately capturing the data. Will we ever know if increasing test scores are indicative of students who are receiving a better education or if they have been taught to become better test takers?” http://www.changethelausd.com/the_lausd_board_is_not_off_of_the_hook
[end reader’s comment]
Link: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lausd-election-20150220-story.html#page=1&panel=comments
Amazing how redefinition can accomplish miracles! And treating squishy data like it’s rock solid ‘hard data points’ is a favorite charterite/privatizer practice. It seems they always treat admonitions as encouragement:
“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” [Mark Twain]
😎
In a later version of the above article(http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-cortines-20150221-story.html), board member Tamar Galatzan, running for a third term, defends the iPad project, something that she has staked her reputation on from the very beginning. When the board did initially vote for the project, the majority of members, including Ms. Galatzan, had received financial backing from “reform” sources. Also, Superintendent Deasy was put in power by Los Angeles’ Eli Broad and supported by organizations like United Way. It was inevitable that those four board members would not dare go against Deasy’s plan with Broad and United Way breathing down their necks. Also, the vote was only for the first phase, so not all the money was spent initially. While the phases related to the deployment of devices and curriculum, installing wi-fi has not been stopped or slowed down. Once the bond funds can no longer be accessed, all the costs to sustain the project like replacement of devices, tech support, professional development, curriculum and network costs will have be taken from the general fund.
While board member Galatzan refuses to waiver from her determination to give every student their own device, she refuses to consider what the consequences will be when such a large chunk of the district budget will be diverted away from classroom needs and services. The “Repairs not iPads” Facebook page clearly demonstrates that the district schools are already in great disrepair and the present bond funds are woefully inadequate.
Just a few days ago, our local NBC station did a follow-up report on lead in school water fountains.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/children-could-be-drinking-tainted-water-nbc4-investigation-exposed-292465681.html
Please note that the district official claims that there is no money to fix the problem. But, board member Galatzan couldn’t care less. The health and safety of our students is of little concern to her.
Ooooh, snap!
Take that, Tamar!
I find it sad that in the midst of all this district corruption and malfeasance with taxpayer monies, NBC or whoever, does a story on water fountains in LAUSD. This is laughable. Let me do their story, yes, it’s lead in the water, no, they don’t flush the fountains everyday to clear it. Yes, our children’s health is important but if you would expose and investigate the corruption that leads to lack of repairs and safety issues, you’re missing the point entirely.
http://www.perdaily.com/2013/10/lausds-ipad-fiasco.html
“In the Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain, the pauper passing as a prince uses the powerful Great Seal of England to open walnuts, because he doesn’t know its power or how else to use it. The issuance of obscenely overpriced IPads to all LAUSD students is reminiscent of this joke, because it too presupposes that generationally deprived and socially promoted students have sufficient mastery of enough prior grade-level standards to take meaningfully advantage of the exceptional potential that these IPod devices offer. Alas, nothing could be further from the truth. Putting a glitzy IPad bandage over the continuing festering sore that is LAUSD yet again begs the question of just how long can these fools running this school district be allow reign free before somebody with the authority to intercede notices that Emperor Deasy has no clothes on.”
For more about the iPads as it happened, from the one blog that chronicles the corruption in LAUSD
http://www.perdaily.com/search.html?cx=partner-pub-5628381898872550%3Ae8r34579apf&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=ipads&sa=GO
“Needless to Say”
The Deasyan deed
Was not about need
But iPads to feed
The hunger of greed
make that “Dollars to feed”
As a teacher in LAUSD, I was heartened to read that Cortines chose to recognize the reality of other priorities than iPads in our still gravely financially-challenged school district. Of course teachers deserve a big raise after years of sacrifice, and it is disappointing that District negotiators continue to low-ball us in negotiations. However, everyone also needs to recognize that our buildings indeed are falling apart, our clerical and custodial personnel are dreadfully understaffed and overworked, we don’t have enough librarians, nurses, and counselors, and our class sizes are the largest in the nation.
Unfortunately also, too many in LAUSD and around the nation continue to be mesmerized by the promise of technology. You’ve all heard a lot already about iPads and the MISIS computer system, but here’s the latest LAUSD snafu: a new “cloud-based” email system that for the first week folks at my school couldn’t access from school! On my new personal laptop at home, no problem, but on my 10-year-old desktop at school, sorry but “server not recognized.” Thanks, but no thanks.
When my union tells the public that the classroom must be the priority, the public needs to heed our call. Enough gimmicks, enough metrics, enough specialists. Give us adequate support and allow us to teach our students. Miracles happen every day when our students open books and start to read and learn.
And where is Jerry Brown in all of this?
Well said. I totally agree.