Comments on: Apple's Georgia laptop deal hits snag

Judge agrees with opponents who said voters weren't sufficiently informed that sales tax would fund school program.

A Little Ridiculous

Saying something like 'THEY ARE GIVING THEM LAPTOPS FOR
GOODNESS SAKES! CAN'T YOU PART WITH 10 BUCKS?' is a little
to straight forward, but that is basically the first thing I thought
when I read this. I completely understand that hidden fees really
are a bummer, and not everyone can just shell out money
whenever it is needed, but 10 dollars isn't that much. And if
someone can't afford it, I would have a hard time believing that
there isn't a person out there wllling to donate a few to help the
cause. Can't it just be that the students and teachers who can
pay the tax get a laptop?

My dad is a teacher for Greenwood Elementary in Wayzata, MN,
and he got the oppertunity to have a tech-based classroom. He
has 8 eMacs in his classroom not counting his, a PocketPC that
holds all the grades and is wireless, etc, and all sorts of little
gadgets. It is amazing how the students react to it all, and how
much more interesting all the curriculum can be when adapted
with anything technological. Students seem to love it, and it
makes things a lot more simple and things get done a lot faster.

[aemarques]

It was inevitable...

... The Apple guys just don't get it! If this deal was to give MS Office to schools, I'm sure that the same people that is appalled by this ruling, was cheering - everything Apple is good; everything Microsoft is bad, no matter what.

[Thomas, David]

Incredible

It is simply dumbfounding, when I see lottery dollars never making
it directly into the education system, then watch a deal fall apart
that would have given these students such a great edcucational
advantage, over a 1% tax.

Seems to me, the value of a childs education (the future of any
society) means so little now.

[lew_jean]

cost to taxpayers

The SPLOT money was to upgrade/repair the technology already inplace in the school system
and supply teachers with a laptop computer.

The cost for just the laptops for the middle and high schools was $100,000,000.00, their was no real money left for the other grades like repair/updating the computers, servers and printers in the class rooms.

Their is a invistagation on how Apple was choses since Dell had a higher score than the Apple computer in the review process.

[JuggerNaut]

Hmmm...

Dell might have scored higher in the review process (which is
questionable), but Apple offered a better price/performance
package than Dell. I think this case boils down to the idea that
Apple was somehow favored over its competitors, something that
is quite the norm today in the Windows world versus its non-
Windows competitors. I can almost guarantee you that if Dell
would have gotten this deal, no one would have muttered a word of
fowl play since no one tried to stop the laptop initiative until after
Apple had officially won the bid.

[serpicolugnut]

Why they went with Apple...

If you look at the numbers, it's easy to see why they went with
Apple over Dell. Apple offered the better deal. The Dell deal was
significantly more. MOF, Cobb County was a little bothered that
another county in another state got a better deal from Dell than
they did.

The real question is whether the person who brought the lawsuit
against the DOE would have done so if the County was buying
Dell, not Apple. I doubt they would. There's been an extremely
anti-Apple sentiment coming from many in the City Council and
throughout other departments in the DOE. More FUD.

[powerclam]

Don't give students laptops at ALL!

I mean, get real!
You were a kid once... can you just imagine the maintenance costs to replace broken laptops? It will be astonishingly high.
I simply can't believe that this is being seriously proposed all across the nation.
This is completely inappropriate, and is just extending a mammoth tax-teat to the computer industry to suckle from.

[mcugaedu]

A good point

That's a good point. I've seen what happens to laptops in a private school where students' families have to pay for them. Providing them *free* in a public school could easily lead to an impossible situation.

What do you do if a student destroys his laptop? Give him a new one at taxpayer expense, or deny him a proper education the rest of the year?

Waste of money....

I don?t know all of the details, but I?m sure Apple (not known for it?s low price) was not the cheapest.

Early on I had an instructor who had advice on buying a new computer. It?s as follows:

-Determine what you want or need to do on the computer.
-Do research to find what type of software you need.
-Go to the store and purchase the software.
-On your way out the door, ask the clerk ?what kind of computer will this run on?
-Go purchase that computer.

Years ago, Apple was the only game in town when it came to education software. Now, this is not the case. There are much cheaper options out there. IMO, the money could be better spent on other educational needs.

From an IT managers view, I imagine it would be a NIGHTMARE!!!! It?s not the same as giving the students calculators.

I do like the following quote:
?Johnstone said the board still could decide to appeal the court decision "because of the significance of the case and its potential impact."?

Yea, the ?potential impact? on APPLE!!!!!!


LOL

[JuggerNaut]

The myth behind Apple and $$$

Actually Apple beat out Dell on the laptop bid for Cobb County (by
some $3.6 Million). This is not the first time Apple has beaten
competitors in the education world. Apple also beat out Dell in
2003 for the bid on the Virginia Tech super computer, both in price
and performance!

[Thomas, David]

ANOTHER UNBELIEVABLE COMMENT

Do all of the naive laypeople come out of the wood-work to
bash Apple as costly!?

It has ALWAYS cost more to maintain a Windows OS than a
MacOS environment. TOC (Total Cost of Ownership) is not the
upfront cost of a computer. It must include support, useability,
security, reliability.

People should not have to have a computer science degree to
understand this. Do some research, compare the satisfaction
level and benefits of those using the Mac systems (not the
Frankenstein creations of the Sculley era, and PLEASE don't
compare it to some Apple computer from 1987 ... even though
that only underlines the satisfaction of the Mac users who never
bothered to get a new computer), versus those of a Windows
based educational system.


Damn, I've had enough of this thread.

Americans are cheap

Americans don't want to pay for anything... they're always looking
for a free lunch... suckers for the word free... although it gets them
in trouble all the time...

We are falling behind in education and this is how Americans (in
Georgia) respond... sad.