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Ann Arbor Schools Want $45M For Tech, Partly For Computers To Run Google Docs

Posted by timothy on from the air-force-bake-sale-any-day dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Ann Arbor Public Schools defended their request for a $45 million bond for new computers by claiming that Apple eMacs aren't good enough for their Advanced Journalism class. A teacher told reporters that new PCs are needed to run WordPress, Google Docs, and Adobe InDesign CS6. WordPress and Google Docs are server-based applications that can be accessed with nearly any web browser. InDesign CS6 has not been released yet and its system requirements are unknown. As a web developer, I am impressed by the online newspaper published by the journalism class, but I question the need for new hardware. The district previously claimed that the old computers couldn't run its standardized testing software, although they far surpass the vendor's specifications. Does modern education really require cutting-edge computers, or are schools screaming 'think of the children' to win over tech-illiterate voters?" Whatever the answer to that question, exaggerated system requirements aren't the only driving force; the $45 million bond sought would not be dedicated only to replacing journalism program computers, note; it would also be used to fund other infrastructure upgrades, including some lower-tech updates, like new sound amplifiers in the district's classrooms. Ann Arbor schools' web site says that the district has (as of 2010, at least) 16,440 students. What are tech outlays like in the public schools where you live?

12 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Seems a little inflated... by gr3yh47 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    $2700 and change per student seems a little high for a tech budget...

    1. Re:Seems a little inflated... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When you're spending other people's money, and taking a cut for yourself ("adminstration"), the object is to waste more, not less.

    2. Re:Seems a little inflated... by datavirtue · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You must have stepped through the stargate because in my world public servants don't give a rat's ass about saving money unless we are talking about THEIR budget. Many times the wasteful spending happens outside the realm of a departmental budget. Special projects are always justified and then the money is spent.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    3. Re:Seems a little inflated... by geekoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's nice, but I actual work with government finance people, and various other public servants. Every day.
      Which turned out to be a nice surprise when I first started doing government audits, and then later got a government job.

      Of course may where you are the public servants happen to fall into every unproven yet stereotypical and exaggerated characture ever conceived.

      I can't speak for your experience, only for my hundreds of audits in both sectors, and my decades of work experience.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    4. Re:Seems a little inflated... by obsess5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I worked in software development. I've met teachers who are smart in their fields and in technology. I've never met a teacher who thought they were smarter than everyone else because of their teaching degree. I've met a lot of software folks who weren't too smart or whose knowledge was a mile deep and an inch wide. Teaching is no different than any other profession - you have the same distribution of talent.

    5. Re:Seems a little inflated... by Guspaz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's what I don't get. You can fault them for buying eMacs then, but they're old unsupported machines today. The article doesn't actually mention 2004, but if we assume they bought them at the start of 2004, you're talking about an 800MHz G4 processor with 128MB of RAM and a 1280x960 CRT.

      Any software that requires an Intel mac (as I'm sure the more recent versions of Adobe's CS products like InDesign would) just won't run, and these things can't run a modern web browser (so Google Docs probably won't work right) since 128MB of RAM just isn't enough for modern web use (remember the OS needs a chunk of that).

      So, yeah, I'd actually say they should have replaced these things long ago. They're close to useless today.

  2. Sigh, slashdot is rather prone to hyperbole by FhnuZoag · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As TFA says, "more than half of the $45.8 million, about $25 million, would be spent to replace the district’s computers — both laptops and desktops.". So that comes down to 1520/student. More importantly, this is for a program of improvements over the next *ten years*, not an immediate replacement job - as the article argues that the >3 years old computers currently in use are obsolete, I assume the money might fund more than one cycle of improvements. At one cycle per 3 years, we're talking ~500 dollars per student, not accounting for inflation, which seems pretty sensible. Anyway this all seems like a storm in a teacup.

    1. Re:Sigh, slashdot is rather prone to hyperbole by DrgnDancer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Have you ever bought gear from Dell as a non-consumer? Sometimes I wonder about the people on this site, aren't we supposed to be techs? My company typically spends between $1200 and $1500 on every Dell we buy. Sure you can get one for $400: it will be obsolete before it's delivered, includes one year of self service warranty, has no monitor, and is generally the last thing you want for wide scale deployment.

      You also can't just say "Get one computer per 2 students." It doesn't work like that. They don't buy computers based on students, they buy them based on classroom space. You need 32 computers in a 32 seat classroom if that classroom is going to be used for computers classes, you might need no computers in an English classroom. You need labs, which are often fully stocked with a computer on every desk, but except during crunch times probably not 100% utilized. You need computers for teachers, or are they supposed to just teach the computer classes from the chalkboard? In elementary schools you can probably get away with a simple two or three computers per student, in high schools and middle schools where students change classrooms every hour or so it's a lot more complicated.

      Have you ever run a wide scale deployment? Have you ever worked in a school district? My guess is no to both.

      --
      I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
  3. When people say... by Nyder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... it's about the children, it's never about the children.

    --
    Be seeing you...
  4. Re:45 million dollars by Xacid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Screw it, I'll bite.

    Your salary could probably feed the entire country if you use their rates. What's your point? They've already banked a few million from their pirating and are still starving - what's that tell you?

    More aid in that general direction doesn't seem to really help those groups in the long term. There's a lot of "feeding them fish" instead of "teaching them to fish" going on that's creating codependence, not self-reliance.

  5. Re:Them's old computers by Sancho · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is also for teaching the tools. Do you train on NT4?

  6. Re:eMacs? by gman003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Due for replacement? That's putting it mildly. Especially since:
    a) They're way unsupported, even by Open Source. First off, they're PowerPC chips - the highest version of Mac OS you can put on them is 10.5, which quite a lot of programs don't support - even some open-source ones. And I've tried installing Linux on an eMac - I never actually got it working. So their best option may be upgrading.
    b) The eMac was the "cheap, low-power" Apple computer. It used cheaper, lower-end parts, often already outdated (it used G4 chips until the end, while iMacs made the jump to G5 two years earlier). I can totally believe that they're unable to run Illustrator. Even current versions of Firefox might be a bit of a stretch, since I doubt the PPC builds are as heavily optimized as the x86 ones. Keep in mind, this is a machine with 256MB of RAM and, at best, a 1.4gHz, single-core processor, about on par with a Pentium II. Most of the students probably have more processing power in their phones.
    c) It's a freaking CRT screen. A 1280x960 CRT screen. I would absolutely hate trying to do graphics work on one of them.