Slashdot Mirror
Ann Arbor Schools Want $45M For Tech, Partly For Computers To Run Google Docs
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?
$2700 and change per student seems a little high for a tech budget...
Apple stopped production on the eMac line back in 2006. Assuming they got the last one for sale, that means a 6 year lifespan. Sounds like they're due for a replacement.
They're now using #3 pencils instead of #2.
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.
They really are pretty much useless these days, I have just retired an office full of them that have been soldiering on for years but the number of websites that were simply not available to them became too great.
eMacs not good enough? But I never know vi costs so much!
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
Voters get conned into voting for higher school budgets because they want better schools and higher property values, but the truth is much of the money is wasted. I voted against several school budgets that had over $1mil set aside for landscaping.
... it's about the children, it's never about the children.
Be seeing you...
The eMac OS support tops out at either 10.4 or 10.5 depending on processor speed, and uses a PowerPC architecture. I'd imagine that current-generation browsers are starting to get harder to get hold of for PPC, and web apps tend to demand up-to-date browsers.
The last eMac was released almost seven years ago. Seven years is not a short upgrade cycle even for educational machines by any stretch of the imagination.
Thus the upgrade is not unjustified (heck, even if the web app was unjustified, you'd still need new machines for a current version of Indesign, which is kind of a requirement for an "advanced" journalism class). Whether the budget allocated for the planned upgrade is justified is another matter, though.
What does running "the latest and greatest" have to do with journalism exactly? Just use the old tools. Software doesn't wear out. Just what sort of revolutionary changes are supposed to have occurred in these programs in the interim?
Although the costs they're citing for replacements seem bloated even for Apple gear.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
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.
There are so many factors in the state of the education system, it's hard to pick any one of them as the keystone. A bajillion dollars is not enough to substitute for parents who don't participate in their kids' education. A bajillion dollars is not enough to correct a society who tells kids it's more important to be a football star than learn math. A bajillion dollars won't make a dent in a stodgy, horribly outdated pedagogical culture that is protected and perpetuated by entrenched interests (teacher's unions, colleges offering degrees in education, textbook publishers, testing companies, etc etc). A bajillion dollars won't improve the performance of obese kids too whacked out on high-fructose corn syrup, junk food, and ritalin to pay attention.
It is true that it is hard to teach a computer class without computers. It is not true that you cannot teach a computer class with old computers. It is not true that you cannot teach a computer class without expensive computers.
In the end putting outsized requests like this in sounds like the timeless bureaucratic game of, grow your budget with ridiculous requests to SAVE THE CHILDREN, then point out how big the budget is that you're now managing, and cry about how much more work it is to manage that large budget and how you can't possibly handle it without a 25% increase in the size of your staff and a 25% bump in your pay.
If /.'s minds can come up with an effective way to unwind that dynamic (and, no, crying 'small government' doesn't and hasn't worked because they just grow different parts of the government, not shrink the total), then it will have performed a greater boon for mankind and done more for its advancement than nearly any other achievement in human history.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
This is also for teaching the tools. Do you train on NT4?
My daughters in the Academy Program, they don't have eMacs, or the latest iGadget her school, they have 4 year old computer systems that run whatever they need perfectly well. The do have the next to latest edition of Office, but the school allows projects to be turned in that were done in Open Source formats as well, and this is for one of the top rated public schools within 100 miles.
This seems more like someone that is anti-apple and just wants the latest and greatest gadgets to play with. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that some of that software found it's way onto the teachers' home computers as well, "we have to know how to use it to teach the children".
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
I grew up and now work in Ann Arbor. Posting as anonymous, for obvious reasons. First, some background. Ann Arbor Public Schools has become a reference model for how not to run a school district. The district routinely has nationwide searches at great expense to find a new superintendent, simply because (1) the average tenure of a superintendent in Michigan is less than two years and (2) none of them are stupid enough to come to a district as dysfunctional as Ann Arbor.
The current superintendent came from a rural district in Pennsylvania, and was old enough to actually retire from her old district to take the job here. But hell, at least she was available.
The tech crisis is at least real. Those really are eMacs being used in the classrooms... yes, the eMac that Apple stopped making in 2005. The district has a budget deficit of $14 million, due to a perfect storm of decreasing state funding (Michigan is not exactly a bastion of tax revenue), decreasing local property values, and fewer students (the #1 local tax payer and #2 employer, Pfizer, pulled out in 2007).
The odd thing is, the district is, by many measures, not bad. But that's due primarily to high student achievement due to the relatively educated population (over 70% of Ann Arbor residents have a 4-year degree or more). Meanwhile, we have high schools that are too big, middle schools that are a disaster, and elementary schools that are actually OK (but not great). On a side note, did I mention that my father teaches for AAPS, and I went to private school? Yeah...
i don't think google docs existed in 2006. If it did i think people thought it was a crazy idea to implement a whole office suite in javascript. While i don't think the students NEED to use cs6, using google docs is sensible. I'm not surprised if it works like ass on a 6 year old iMac. I have a 4 year old laptop that struggles with it.
As a Computer Science teacher from Michigan, I am disappointed by the lack of resourcefulness exhibited by the Ann Arbor school administrators. Currently, I am in a room filled with equipment from:
Selfridge ANGB
U.S. Navy
Corporations
Universities
Many local sources
All of this equipment was acquired for FREE. All that I have had to occasionally pay is shipping. The lowest end equipment that I have is P4 2.8Ghz. We run Untangle as an Internet gateway through Comcast for FREE. I suggest that Ann Arbor Schools look to the following to reduce their costs:
U of M
http://computersforlearning.gov/
Meijer
etc.
There is a trust issue here. Once the public knows that the schools are working hard to rein in costs, then they can reasonably ask for what they need. A tech wish list without due diligence and fiduciary constraint is just asking to be flamed.
I don't find it unreasonable that computers made in 2006 (which were underpowered at the time) are due for a replacement. There are reasons (for and against) to pay the Apple tax to get their hardware. That is completely secondary to the main issue.The problem I have is using bond money for this expense. The real issue here is the horrible mismangement that led to the need for a bond issue to replace depreciable assets. Bonds are supposed to be for capital improvements. This means new schools, major rennovations or upgrades. Bond money is not supposed to be used for rountine repair, replacment, or basic expsenses. Building a new wing for [whatever reader thinks is worthwhile] is good. Paying for teacher salaries with bonds is bad. I consider this to be the same as using bond money to buy new books. Book are a depreciable short term asset that need frequent replacement: they should not be considered a capital expense. Likewise computers.
Any organization which approves a $1000+ budget for a bulk purchase of machines in this day and age should be fired and investigated to find out how they got their kickbacks from the winning vendor.
Because you can go to Dell, Lenovo, HP-Compaq, and even Apple and get machines in such quantities for FAR less than $1000/pop.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
There's a lot of "feeding them fish" instead of "teaching them to fish" going on that's creating codependence, not self-reliance.
Whilst I largely agree with you, it's an unfortunate choice of metaphor, since overfishing by foreign trawlers is often cited as one of the things that has made Somalia less self-reliant.