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Chicago Mayor Praises Google For Buying Kids Microsoft Surfaces

Posted by timothy on from the non-denominational dept.

theodp (442580) writes "Google earned kudos from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week for teaming up with Staples to fund the projects of 367 of the city's 22,519 public school teachers on "begfunding" site DonorsChoose.org. "Everything that you asked for...every project that the teachers put on to help their students learn, exceed and excel here in the city of Chicago, you now have fully funded," Mayor Emanuel said. "Chicago's hardworking public school teachers are doing all that they can-and more-to support their students, but they need more help," said Rob Biederman, head of Chicago Public Affairs at Google. "We jumped at the chance to join with DonorsChoose.org and Staples to make Chicago's local classroom wishes come true." So what kind of dreams did Google make possible? Ironically, a look at Google Chicago's Giving Page shows that the biggest project funded by Google was to outfit a classroom with 32 Microsoft Surface RT tablets for $12,531, or about 6.5% of the $190,091 Google award. Other big ticket projects funded by Google included $5,931 for a personal home biodiesel kit and $5,552 for a marimba (in the middle of the spectrum was $748 for "Mindfulness Education"). In addition to similar "flash-funding" projects in Atlanta (paper towels!) and the Bay Area, Google and DonorsChoose have also teamed up this year to reward teachers with $400,000 for recruiting girls to learn to code (part of Google's $50 million Made With Code initiative) and an unknown amount for AP STEM teachers who passed Google muster (part of Google's $5 million AP STEM Access grant)."

10 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. No wonder MSFT stock is up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Surface sales must have just doubled!

    1. Re:No wonder MSFT stock is up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      A good way of making sure none of those kids ever use another Microsoft product.

  2. Re: Politician thanks company for doing his job by kenh · · Score: 4, Informative

    Chicago Public School teachers are paid between $50-97K, based on education and time in job, plus pension and healthcare benefits.

    http://www.ctunet.com/for-memb...

    --
    Ken
  3. The kids first comment will be... by blahbooboo · · Score: 5, Funny

    This isn't an ipad? Crap this sucks.

  4. Re:5.5k for a Marimba? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Informative

    How can a Marimba (which from a look at Google is similar to a Xylophone) cost so much money?

    They are very large, professionally made musical instruments.

    Check out the prices for other major musical instruments ... if you want to get any quality, they are not cheap.

  5. Just wondering ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just wondering ... but why didn't public schools need to engage in constant fundraising and beg-a-thons in the good old days, for basics? Governments weren't spending more on them then, proportionately.

    We are spending a river now. Where is it going?

  6. do tablets actually help? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Last research I heard, a few years back, was that computers in the classroom actually harmed academic performance except in the sole case that the point was to learn about computers, because they were a distraction and also students didn't tend to take longhand notes, which is an important part of learning.

    And if the class is a computer class, tablets seem like the worst possible choice.

    1. Re:do tablets actually help? by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You have that right. People with some experience in that field have been saying it for a long time, and by now there is a scientific foundation to that idea. However you should not forget that this was not about doing something positive for children, but about getting good press. The average person on the streets thinks that computers help academic performance, because the average person on the street has no clue.

      Incidentally, same as this "Made with Code" nonsense. Most people cannot learn to code to any significant degree and many of those remaining cannot learn to code well. Having these people on a project usually results in negative performance by them, i.e. cleaning up the mess they make costs significantly more money that the worth of anything they created. We desperately need fewer people to learn how to code. Instead we need to make sure only those that actually have the required talent learn how to do it professionally. The others cannot get there, no matter what. Coding well is a very advanced skill.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  7. Re:Teach them how to start a business by Rich0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What schools should be teaching is basic entrepreneur skills so that people can create their own jobs after they graduate.

    Skill #1 - be born to parents who can give you enough money to survive until your business makes a profit.

    I think about half of kids in public schools are going to fail to master this one.

  8. Re: Politician thanks company for doing his job by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

    I would argue the reverse, they are in GENERAL underpaid, but there are definitely some who are NOT underpaid: see Chicago.

    Here is a list of median and starting salaries for teachers. In my state, California, the median is $67k. In my county, Santa Clara, it is $79k. They also receive generous benefits, and summers off. Teachers are paid fairly well compared to other non-technical college graduates.