“Cobb County school board members will no longer try to equip its students with laptop computers, agreeing in spirit with a Superior Court judge’s order to immediately halt the groundbreaking program,” Kristina Torres reports for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Board Chairwoman Kathie Johnstone made the announcement late Monday after board members met with attorneys for two hours and 15 minutes. She said the board came to a unanimous consensus, realizing Cobb’s controversial program ‘is no longer an option.’ The decision could close a rift that has roiled the community for months.”
“Opponents of the plan, including many parents and teachers, had questioned whether it was proven and worth the cost. Judge S. Lark Ingram recently halted the program because the school system did not tell voters a special sales tax would be used to pay for it,” Torres reports.
“The judge’s decision will allow the distribution of laptops to teachers to proceed because school officials had already promised them a ‘computing device’ in the materials they distributed before the sales tax passed in 2003,” Torres reports. “At that time, school officials also promised to ‘refresh obsolete [computer} workstations’ for students. Only later did officials come up with a more dramatic plan that eventually could have provided 63,000 Apple iBook laptops to all teachers and all students in grades six through 12. System spokesman Jay Dillon said officials will begin to work on a new plan, ‘even if the board decides to appeal.’ That work will include looking at schools’ current technology needs… Separate investigations requested by the board into the bidding process for the laptop program are continuing, based on witness testimony that a school system employee hinted before final bids were in that leaders wanted Apple Computer as their supplier.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Bet Dell’s education sales force had a few beers to celebrate. Can you guess what happens next? We suppose Apple could start all over, but why wouldn’t the board shy away from Apple Macs after all of this? Cobb’s students end up being the losers. Too bad.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Judge shuts down 63,000 Apple iBooks for Cobb County students – July 29, 2005
One Cobb County Apple iBook audit expected to finish soon – July 27, 2005
Inquiry into Cobb County Apple iBook bids requested – July 14, 2005
Cobb County iBook saga: allegations that school leaders pressured employees to pick Apple – July 11, 2005
Lawsuit to halt Cobb County’s 63,000 Apple iBooks for education plan goes to court today – July 08, 2005
Cobb County’s Apple iBooks in schools saga continues with lawsuit – June 04, 2005
Lawsuit filed to stop Cobb County’s Apple iBook program – June 01, 2005
Cobb County school board approves Apple Mac plan; could eventually distribute 63,000 iBooks – April 29, 2005
Henrico school board dumps Apple Macs, picks Dells with Windows – April 29, 2005
Cobb County school officials intend to move forward with Apple iBook program – April 21, 2005
Cobb Commission chief urges delay in Apple iBook program, says issue has become too emotional – April 20, 2005
No conflict of interest in ongoing Cobb County Apple iBook saga – April 19, 2005
More controversy in Atlanta-area school district’s plan to buy Apple iBooks – April 16, 2005
Cobb County Georgia approves first phase of plan that could equip schools with 63,000 Apple iBooks – April 15, 2005
Atlanta-area school district on verge of deal for 31,000 Apple iBooks – April 12, 2005
Cobb teachers voice concerns over using Macs for proposed laptop program – March 29, 2005
Cobb County Georgia meeting discusses plan to equip schools with 63,000 Apple iBooks – February 24, 2005
Report: 90 percent of emails opposed to Georgia’s Apple iBook program – February 10, 2005
65,000 Apple iBooks for Georgia schools one of the largest school laptop programs in the country – February 10, 2005
Georgia school district to propose 63,000 Macs for students and teachers – February 07, 2005
Why is it I get the feeling that when Dell laptops are hawked to the Cobb County school district in the near future (most likely) it will be, “Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!”?
These people aren’t exactly Mensa members. Don’t forget, a few years ago the very same Cobb County school district put stickers on the high school biology textbooks saying, “Evolution is a theory, not a fact” — and then had to pay $25,000 to have the stickers removed after a judge ruled them unconstitutional.
Since they’re so opposed to evolution, they should just give the kids IBM 386 machines running Windows 3.0. One computer’s just as good as another, right?
I bet that the Apple sales guy is about to hang himself.
Snarky comments aside, this is too bad for the students…
I don’t know where Cobb County is, but to me the issue of computer provision and the way that the Education Board at Cobb County went about planning and implementing the plan is at fault here.
Yes I agree that none in Cobb County’s education system are very bright and as yet no supplier has been announced since the issue surrounds inappropriate use of sales tax money and not that the supplier is Apple or Dell.
It seems to me that either corners were cut somewhere in the process and certain protocols were ignored that has led to this issue with the Supreme Court.
Personally I would recommend that Cobb County Education Board start over, do all the survey’s and get all the red tape done before even deciding on who’d be the supplier.
Sure there are other districts that have decided for whatever reason, right or wrong to cancel supply of Apple’s and go with Dell instead.
Take my local library for instance, they are Dell’s and as you’d expect virus ridden and are always crashing several times a day. Local Internet cafe’s refuse to accept customer’s who come in to them the use of a 3.5″ diskette (brand new technology in the view of Cobb County) used from a library machine, they ask you where did that diskette come from.
The reason why things are like this: Accountants are running everything, where it’s the initial price that matters only, longterm higher costs doesn’t even come into it.
Judges are to APPLY the Law- not make law or policy.
Here is living proof.
Winston, the stickers in question read:
“This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”
What a narrow-minded group to state factually that evolution is a theory and then suggest an open mind and critical consideration on the part of students!
Oh come on, evolution is a theory in the same way that the existence of human beings is a theory. You can argue all you like about the details but the basic fact is still a fact what ever way you try to hide it.
What a sad world we live in. All that money wasted.
“Cobb is appealing the ruling, but faces a request to pay opposing attorneys about $135,000 in legal fees. That’s on top of roughly $74,000 charged by its own attorneys. Dillon on Monday could not say how much the laptop case has cost.”
There are so many issues raised here I don’t know where to begin.
Current USA mentality: I don’t like what everyone’s doing and saying so I’m going to sue the ass off the rest of the world (or patent it so I can sue them.)
This is pretty bad going for Apple. No explanation needed.
Cobb County wants to do what’s best for their (19th century?) community. Let them choose the “best” platform for their kiddies education. Let’s hope the kids actually do get to understand computers, and don’t actually get hindered by issues if they choose the “other” platform.
If the above comments about evolution are also true, I’m amazed. Science and religion – the eternal debate rages on. However, how much evidence does one need before believing in evolution? Hope someone invents a time machine, not just to prove evolution is a fact, but so they can take these bozos somewhere and lose them…
Wonder how many kids are fuming right now, knowing they were so close to scoring an iBook? I know I would be, but then again, my kid’s would already have Apple computers… and a Windows P.O.S. (that’s piece of !@#%, not point of sale) – so they’ll get to learn both anyway.
“…Current USA mentality: I don’t like what everyone’s doing and saying so I’m going to…”
Current non-USA mentality: Whatever the US is doing, I don’t like it and I’m going to (blah blah blah blah)
“…Cobb County wants to do what’s best for their (19th century?) community…”
Sounds to me like Cobb County wants a little accountability for their tax dollars. What’s so primitive about that? They were lied to about the use of the money that they work every day to earn, and have every right to have their grievances redressed.
“…evolution is a theory in the same way that the existence of human beings is a theory…”
not exactly…
microevolution is an observable fact of the natural world – no one disputes that species have the ability to adapt over time to their environment…
macroevolution is the theory about which the argument is taking place, and there are compelling arguments that would seek to dispute evolution’s ability to create the world’s living diversity from a single organism…
don’t be dogmatic on either side about science! actually, the disputed stickers gave good advice…open mindedness and critical thinking –
This place is full of a bunch of narrow-minded …
There is no reason to give the students laptops. What a waste of taxes. They should do one of 2 things with that money.
Hire more teachers which would be much more beneficial for the students since they would have smaller classes or give the money back to the tax payers. After all it’s their money.
Another idea would be to use the money to hire tutors for the students that want to learn but are having trouble in certain areas.
Laptops for kids are just expensive toys that contribute to the dumbing down of our country’s kids.
BTW, evolution is a theory that is so full of holes that real thinking people are realizing that life is just to complicated to have happened by chance. Science has not documented one case where change has resulted in an increase in information in the DNA of any living thing. Every change that science has observed has resulted in a loss of information.
For evolution to occur new information would have to appear in the DNA for advancement. If evolution were true then this is something that science would be able to observe today, which they haven’t.
Think people. Just don’t blindly accept the stories that people have made up. The media promotes evolution as fact and all Cobb county did was remind the students that evolution was a theory.
Here’s a geography lesson for the person who asked.
Cobb County is located just south of Hayseed County.
nuff said.
You keep using that word, “theory”. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Greg doesn’t read much.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/textbookdisclaimers/
Separate investigations requested by the board into the bidding process for the laptop program are continuing, based on witness testimony that a school system employee hinted before final bids were in that leaders wanted Apple Computer as their supplier.
The sad part about all this is the favoritism that goes on in the IT world the benefits only Microsoft and Dell (as of late). But this is considered normal policy and no one would object or raise a stink about it because people are programmed to think that if Windows was chosen, it must have been the right decision, though in several situations, was probably the wrong decision!
I guess the positive side of this case will be a blessing in disguise because now this will give opportunity to bring up the same problem when Microsoft is unfairly getting chosen over its competitors.
Sounds like Cobb County is having a kernel panic.
Greg,
A few definitions…
Science doesn’t prove anything. It disproves things, like hypothesis and theory. If the results aren’t consistent with the theory, then the theory fails. This is how science comes up with models to describe the physical world and the laws that apply. Theories are generally assumed to be true right up until the moment they are proven false, like Edison with the lightbulb. He said that he didn’t fail 999 times to make a lightbulb before he got it right, he just found that many ways to NOT make a lightbulb. Science looks for theories that fail, and then discards them, so it is the scientist’s primary role to try to disprove theory after theory in order to find the last one standing. You say that evolution is so full of holes – I am sure the world wide scientific community would like to know of your important breakthroughs.
Evolution doesn’t include ‘chance’. It implies that a certain set of characteristics of one species gives an advantage over another species in a given locale and time, and that if the advantage is large enough, then that species will thrive while the competitor will not. That’s not chance, that’s Darwin.
You state “For evolution to occur new information would have to appear in the DNA for advancement”. Your notion of science apparently comes from the ape sequence of “2001”, or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and is not related to the long term adaptation, or failure, of species to the environment, which science tries very hard to poke holes into everyday and it still holds up.
Cobb County is pushing 700,000 people and is in the Atlanta metro area.
It was the Darwin kernel. I knew it.
When Cobb Co.’s high school graduates are working for bosses in Bangalore or Beijing 4-5 years from now, Cobb’s citizen’s will maybe wonder why hairs were split over the words “workstation” vs. “laptop”. Students in India and China are lining up to eat our lunch in science and engineering – and here is a former county commissioner doing his best to make sure that kids remain without the best tools available to help them compete in an increasingly global marketplace.
We will get what we deserve.