LA Schools Seeking Refund Over Botched iPad Plan

SternisheFan sends news that Los Angeles Unified School District is asking Apple for a refund of the district's effort to equip students with iPads. The project was budgeted at around $1.3 billion to equip its 650,000 students, though only about 120,000 iPads have been purchased so far. After the program went bad, the FBI launched an investigation into their procurement practices. The iPads weren't standalone education devices — they were supposed to work in conjunction with another device carrying curriculum from a company named Pearson. But the district now says the combined tech didn't meet their needs, and they want their money back. Lawyers for the local Board of Education are looking into litigation options. They've also notified Apple and Pearson they won't pay for any new products or services.

Comments

Wow. Just wow.

[Frosty Piss]

The iPads weren't standalone education devices â" they were supposed to work in conjunction with another device carrying curriculum from a company named Pearson. But the district now says the combined tech didn't meet their needs, and they want their money back.

So... They didn't test the iPad / content combo to establish usability / feasibility / usefulness prior to dropping all this cash?

Re:Wow. Just wow.

[Daniel Hoffmann]

This is just plain wrong, I am Brazilian and my mother is a teacher in São Paulo state public schools and the situation is horrible, what you see overseas are the high school grads that went to private schools in Brazil, the average citizen can not afford to go to school overseas even if they qualify (and they don't because they do not speak any foreign language) because some costs are not covered (visas for example).

What you are seeing is just the upper middle class latin americans leaving their crappy country for something better, they are the ones that can afford decent education. The situation for the ones that stay is really, really bad. Most public high school students would fail a basic reading test, in fact so many people fail the (very easy) drivers license written exam that it is common to hear histories about bribes to pass them. Americans complain about creationism taught in high schools, we complain about people not being able to do basic math.

That's correct.

[Pollux]

So... They didn't test the iPad / content combo to establish usability / feasibility / usefulness prior to dropping all this cash?

Correct. As it says in the LA Times article, "The district selected Pearson based only on samples of curriculum — nothing more was available."

Re:shocker

[Mr D from 63]

My kid's STEM school used Dell Chromebooks. They are very useful for doing what is needed, creating reports, researching information, submitting homework, and occasional collaborative activities. They are not a mainstay of the educational day, but a tool used at the appropriate time.

Pearson

[jbolden]

Summary didn't mention this but Pearson is a huge global education player. Just a few of their brands: Addison–Wesley, BBC Active, Bug Club, eCollege, Fronter, Longman, MyEnglishLab, Penguin Readers, Prentice Hall, Poptropica and Financial Times Press. So I don't see how LA Unified is going to avoid them.

As for this not meeting their needs... Reading the article LA Unified seems completely clueless. The contract was $768 / iPAD (I assume this includes warranty) + $200 / content & software license for 3 years. They according to the article are demanding that Apple fix the application, Apple didn't create the application nor does it own the content. They bought 43,261 iPads with the Pearson curriculum and 77,175 without. AFAICT Apple delivered their part. Their problem is the Pearson curriculum.

I can get that they don't like the app, but at this cost they can just write an app. The whole thing sounds like they don't know how to buy or deploy technology when it comes to a custom solution. Which is potentially understandable for a small district but inexcusable for a $1.3b contract.

Re:shocker

[MightyYar]

I have no idea whether the negotiated a lower price from Apple or not, but I will point out that $1.3 billion divided by 650,000 students is almost $2500 per student... the cost of the device is almost in the noise here.

Re:Buyer's remorse

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I can't digg up the original contract to check; but some of the stories state that they are going to Apple because the deal was to purchase 'iPad+software', as a packaged product, from Apple. By all accounts Pearson was the significant weak link (not a shock, that's pretty typical for them), while Apple's stuff suffered only from the fairly pitiful state of iOS management; but the school district didn't structure the deal as 'Contract #1, buy ipads, Contract #2, buy textbook apps'; it was a package, and their claim is that half the package was rotten and the other half is of little use to them without the underdelivered component.

Given that Apple is reputed to be a brutal and efficient taskmaster of its suppliers, I'd imagine that either the school district will fail, or Apple will gouge it out of Pearson; but to the best of my understanding there is logic behind complaining to Apple, given the terms under which the devices were purchased.

The previous Slashdot story?

[galabar]

Can we pull up the previous Slashdot story on this (when they were just starting)? While most folks agreeded that it would fail, it may be useful to recognize those folks that were vehement supporters for this and ridicule them mercilessly. Here's the original article: http://news.slashdot.org/story... Looking through that link, I'm challenged to find even a single supporter.

Re:Sign off.

[i.r.id10t]

Which is why when a vendor asks us to enable integration for their stuff - and Pearson is one of 'em with their myFooLab emporium, I always tell 'em three things.

1) I don't work for $vendor - so no, I don't "have to" or "need to" do anything for them

2) We only accept requests from faculty or departments who have decided to adopt the resource, not from the sales person or vendor tech support folks. Again, see #1

3) The product must not be in beta or "brand new last week", and I must see it work on their system, our course management vendor's system (used for demos), or get good reports from other LMS Admins at other schools

Have had several unhappy vendors/sales folks, but have had minimal issues about promised features not working, existing, etc.

But the reports say...

[Ecuador]

Pearson was Apple's subcontractor. Apple was supposed to get $780 out of every ipad (yep, you heard right, retail+ price) and Pearson $200. I haven't seen the contract, but if the various news sources is correct, it is Apple who is basically making the offer by bundling software of their choice...