The Los Angeles school board has officially shelved the $1.3 billion contract that would have provided iPads to every student, teacher and campus administrator in the district.
The deal first stalled back in July, after which it was reported that former Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent John Deasy and his then-chief deputy, Jaime Aquino, had been unlawfully discussing the deal with Apple up to two years before the bidding process was finished and contracts were approved.
This Monday, a federal grand jury subpoena resulted in 20 boxes of documents being seized by the FBI for further investigation. These boxes include reports, contracts, agreements, consent forms, meeting minutes and notes, and more.
Deasy, who resigned under pressure in October, has claimed not to be involved in any wrongdoing. There were previously calls for him to report to “teacher jail” while under investigation, although these demands went nowhere.
In an extra-bitter pill to swallow, there is now a chance the schools could wind up with Chromebooks instead.
This is why we can’t have nice things!
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
7 responses to “$1.3 billion L.A. Schools’ iPad dream ends after FBI investigation”
It must suck to be poor and not be able to afford even a used 16gb iPad.
Chromebooks, I hate to say it, ARE a step down from an iPad.
Chromebooks are a lot better for learning and getting actual work done. We’ve seen what a disaster iPads have been in education.
Unfortunately you’re right. iPads and education hasn’t been the dream-team solution Apple hoped for but honestly this is a worse news for Microsoft than Apple.
Schools are notorious for being technologically gimped chiefly due to limited funds. There’s almost every chance that the Chromebooks LA schools will likely end up with won’t be upgraded and/or replaced for 5+ years. Schools don’t have the flexibility of upgrading their tech every 2 or so years like consumers.
It’s the reason why a lot of schools are still working on XP machines and probably will for the foreseeable future until the computer is so broken it can’t be fixed thereby forcing them into a Win 8.1 or (eventually) Win 10 machine.
The only way Apple could really compete is to make a MacBook Air made from plastic specifically for the education market. However even if that were a possibility — of which there’s almost no way Apple would do such a thing — there’s no way they’d be able to make something soon enough to stop the inevitable Chromebook deal for LA schools.
You are incorrect.
A. I am blessed and I am able to send my daughter to private Catholic high school where every student is required to have a 32 Gigabyte iPad Air or better. Parents have to purchase them and all the content in them. The infrastructure programs the school has in place are amazing. As students take tests the teachers can see in real-time where students are struggling. You could make an argument for a keyboard cover being desired and I purchased one for her upon her request, as the typing is more convenient. Chromebook’s do have a built in non touch keyboard. Chromebook’s still lack in MANY of the apps and infrastructure that the schools require. It’s not just load Google docs and hit the go button. Take a few minutes and download E.O Wilson’s life on earth Biology textbook for the iPad (Not sure if available for other platforms). It’s free in the iBooks store. If you are not convinced that this is the future of education, then we can never agree on anything.
B. The issue with the LA program is in it’s implementation and bidding, not the technology used. It also appears that the publisher may have been playing some shenanigans. Again, that is procedural and not technology related. There is NOTHING built into the school infrastructure in LA for this roll-out. The cart was before the horse. Just go read a few articles on it and do some critical analysis and you will come to the same conclusion.
C. Chromebooks could also be implemented in a successful plan. I would never deny that. It depends on the school system needs and the individuals involved. But to blanket cast iPads as a disaster tells me immediately that you have zero experience in any of this.
Depends on the work that needs to be done. Even just using them for textbooks, museum apps, etc can be a step up.
Headline is false. The investigation didn’t make them cut the contract. It hasn’t actually been finished yet.
They did it on their own, because it was the right thing to do for the taxpayers. We agreed to pay that money to improve tech in the schools and the assumption was that the right tech would be picked