“The degree that the [Henrico County Apple iBook plan] has positively affected student education has yet to be determined. About $27.9 million has been spent on the laptops in the past four years,” Olympia Meola reports for The Richmond Tmes-Dispatch. “Internet filtering became a controversial element of the program several years ago when students were caught downloading pornography at school.”

“‘We’ve been using the best piece of software we can find,’ said Dave Myers, the county’s assistant superintendent for finance. Bidders are being asked to supply larger bandwidth to the laptops’ wireless card so the county could grant teachers the option to view all students’ computer screens electronically. School officials are also considering a filter system that works when students leave school, said Lloyd Brown, Henrico’s assistant director of technology and information services,” Meola reports.

“[Parent Steven Bass] and other parents see the omission of specific filtering requirements as a sign that school officials are trying to steer the contract to Apple, the current provider. Bass suggests that the request should be retracted and redesigned to seem less Apple-specific,” Meola reports. “‘It’s a very slanted proposal,’ Bass said. If school officials would like to go with Apple again, Bass thinks they should demand that Apple come up with the solutions. That’s not the case, county officials maintain. Brown denied any attempt to again sole-source the contract to Apple. Superintendent Fred Morton IV has repeatedly said the same. In fact, the county recently tweaked a hardware requirement in their request that made it easier for more laptop manufacturers to bid. ‘Whoever comes out with the best response will win the [contract],’ Brown said.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: We hope officials take the total cost of ownership into account when reviewing the contracts and don’t act like Joe Six Pack at the local Wal-Mart and shortsightedly fixate on the sticker price alone. Besides, to go backwards from Mac OS X to Windows XP would be cruel and unusual punishment for Henrico students and teachers. Here are just a handful of articles (we have many more) that Henrico officials should keep in mind when making their decision:

Cybersecurity advisor Clarke questions why anybody would buy from Microsoft – February 18, 2005
Security expert: Don’t use Microsoft Windows, Office, Outlook, Internet Explorer – December 09, 2004
Cyber-security adviser uses Apple Macintosh to avoid Windows’ security woes – September 27, 2004
Information Security Investigator says switch from Windows to Mac OS X for security – September 24, 2004
Windows XP Service Pack 2 causing major headaches on college campuses – August 24, 2004
Scientists use Mac OS X for better performance, security – February 12, 2004
Pennsylvania school district’s PCs infected with virus; their Macs unaffected – October 01, 2003
Single Mac keeps company running while Windows machines fail due to Blaster worm – August 13, 2003

Related MacDailyNews articles:
Survey shows support for Henrico iBook program with ‘lukewarm support’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – March 07, 2005
Henrico poll finds students are using iBooks successfully – February 11, 2005
Henrico iBooks raise concerns among some parents – May 28, 2004
Henrico high school laptop program to continue, but will it still feature Apple Macs? – February 24, 2005