“Six months ago, Pleasanton High became the only school in the San Antonio area to give all its students a wireless laptop computer. The school board could vote today, however, to take them away. Frank Persyn, vice president of the school board, has proposed reconsidering the district’s four-year contract with Apple. District officials say they aren’t sure why,” Diana Reinhart reports for San Antonio Express-News. “Pleasanton’s $2.2 million contract with Apple allows the district to pay for the wireless laptops over four years. The contract includes laptops for the high school’s teachers and 950 students, training for staff, and supporting equipment such as printers and projectors.”
“‘I wasn’t consulted,’ Superintendent Alton Fields said. ‘I haven’t been told why it was put on (the agenda) or what their intent is.’ What’s clear, however, is that the board’s membership has changed considerably since the wireless project was approved in September by a 5-2 vote. Back then, the majority of the board wanted the high school to go wireless, but the current board, which was elected in May, appears less enthusiastic about the advance,” Reinhart reports.
“Persyn could not be reached for comment Monday. But as one of the two members who voted against the project last year, there is speculation he may now have the support he needs to kill the wireless venture. Two board members who supported the laptops were defeated in the May election, and another resigned. Today’s board meeting will be the first for the new members,” Reinhart reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Something unpleasant going down in Pleasanton? We’ll keep an eye on this one. It’ll be interesting to see if the board is anti-computer or anti-Apple; we’ll know for sure if they sign a contract in the future with, say, Dell.
This sucks! All they’re going to do iss end up hurting the students (by limiting their access to technology), and wasting money.
What do you expect? This is Texas. They routinely hold kids back by not allowing them to take certain classes. This way, it keeps the graduation rates at a higher level since the borderline kids are held back.
“Unpleasant”? Ugly! In fact, it smells. What’s changed in six months? The experience? The teachers? The students? The Board is bored and can find nothing better to do?
Or maybe there’s a real issue here. So what is it?
‘not in my backyard…’
– Michael Dell
“Two board members who supported the laptops were defeated in the May election, and another resigned”
Maybe there was backlash against the idea of spending that much. It is $2000 per student, but one man’s bargain is another’s waste.
It won’t be pretty telling 950 people who’ve had Macs in their hands for six months they now have to turn them in. Can you say iRiot?
San Antonio is not really the most forward thinking city. Being the 9th largest city in the country and the most popular destination in the country…..it thinks like a small town and they (City council) think its a Metropolitan City. Far from it. Most metropolitan cities do not rely on Tourism as their main source of funds. Guess what? The next biggest thing in San Antonio is BioTech. And Pleasanton citizens probably think that the wireless deal is a little to forward thinking that will not help students in the long run. I also think that they think that Apple is a premium machine for a premium price….and that there are alternatives. Just my theory.
Would they really have to turn them back in? Would Apple take them back?
Don’t mean to be harsh but you don’t know what you’re talking about re TX. As a (non-Texan) education analyst, I can tell you that TX has left nearly all other states (except NC) in the dust over the last decade in increasing the academic achievement of disadvantaged students (esp. African American). There’s still a LOT to do, and believe it or not, TX is continuing to raise its standards. You need better info sources…
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Texas. Dell.
Apple. Oooops.
Besides, teachers don’t know what’s best for students, bean-counters do.
Kids, skoolin’ is ’bout learnin’ ’bout the ‘real’ world, on a real compooter. One that plays hundreds of games, and keeps real men busy doing real work – a-fixin’ and a-tinkerin’. Ya don’t need no sissy compooter fer drawin picshures. Draw picshures on real compooters with CorelDraw. Hee Haw!
Thanks “Wrong, Jeff” for setting Tx record straight. Its a shame that San Antonio ISD is thinking about this, but its not so much Dell. Dell is in Austin area. School boards in Texas anyway are generally little people with little power and they think they are hot sh_t. Im sure the students will raise objections now that they’ve had a taste of using well made machines. And could someone forward the articles about Maine and whoever else up north is reporting improved grades and student interest to the writer of this article and San Antonio ISD?
It’s Pleasanton ISD. San Antonio ISD has nothing to do with this, I don’t think. Just a neighboring city. And Alton Fields has a .Mac account. I assume he’s a mac user.
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if you ever go to a school board meeting, you’ll understand exactly how things like this happen. The people who are on the local school boards generally have the cognitive ability of plankton. How something like a wireless network EVER got approved in the first place is a mystery to me.
Wrong, Wrong Jeff,
You’re blowing smoke. According to the experts on minorities in Texas…
http://www.texasnaacp.org/taas.htm
Read this from the San Antonio paper:
Test expert takes TAAS to task
By Cecilia Balli
San Antonio Express-News Staff Writer
September 22, 1999
A Boston testing expert testifying in federal court here Tuesday said “savage inequalities” in Texas public schools make the use of a standardized test to determine who gets a high school diploma unfair for African-Americans and Hispanics.
In his second day of testimony, Boston College Education Professor Walter Haney provided a sweeping summary of how high retention rates, invalid test construction, teacher dissatisfaction with the exam and a mismatch between what students learn and what they’re tested on indicates the state must end its strict use of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills.
The legal challenge will determine whether the exit-level TAAS has discriminatory effects for minorities, who have closed the gap in test scores with their Anglo peers but continue to pass the exam at lower rates.
“I think the difference in pass rates are primarily due to what Jonathan Kozol calls the ‘savage inequalities’ that persist in our educational system,” said Haney, acting director for the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy in Boston. “There are huge savage inequalities reamaining in the educational system in Texas.”
How much is it going to cost them to break a contract and when you buy something you have to pay for it.
May be Apple will take them back for a fee.
Public education in Texas is a joke, and every educator in the other 49 States knows it. Texas public schools were (past-tense) destroyed by the TAAS and by the unforgiveable things that the schools had to do in order to keep their scores up. Including but not limited to, coaxing kids that weren’t going to score highly, to drop out of school (and go for their GED) before testing time. And that’s just the start of it.
This has all been documented, do your homework (on non-propaganda sites), then come back and try again…
“I think the difference in pass rates are primarily due to what Jonathan Kozol calls the ‘savage inequalities’ that persist in our educational system,” said Haney, acting director for the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy in Boston. “There are huge savage inequalities reamaining in the educational system in Texas.”
The “savage inequalities” in the educational system stem from IQ differences in the students: White mean IQ 100, Mexican mean IQ 90, Black mean IQ <85. No amount of spending can increase the IQ which is largely genetic ( circa 80% or more ). Also consider that Jewish mean IQ is reported between 107 and 115 and North Asian ( Chinese and Japanese ) mean IQ is between 104 and 107. Are not the Jews and North Asians doing just fine in school?
So, the school board stalled last night. They want to see the contract and meet again next week. There’s a lot more involved than just the laptops. The school also got a complete wireless network, 3 Xserves, network printers, digital cameras and camcorders, digital microscopes, and the list goes on. The largest concern is that if the contract is broken, they won’t be able to replace what they loose. If they rip out the network, what ‘cha gonna use for the ugly PCs that remain?
Atlantin,
You’re not serious, are you? Where did you dig up this ridiculous trash? If you’ve ever taken an IQ test, you should realize that the result will be very strongly influenced by the quality of your education. The whole concept of IQ as independent of education is ridiculous. Your implication that economically disadvantaged minorities suffer lower educational achievement due to some genetic factor is nothing but a case of blaming the victim. Next you’ll be telling us that women who get raped are natural victims because they have higher hormone levels or something. Give us a break.
Here’s one for you, regarding the San Antonio bean counters. The good folks at SBC have decided that the graphics side of the company, publishing, should get rid of the Macs with Photoshop, Illistrator & Quark & go to a PC with Freehand & Photoshop. It must be a Texas thing, I guess
Majikthize,
While in High School, in Texas!… yes, thats right, I got hammered by some black guy because I wouldn’t give him the answers to a test while in class. He said I was “prejudiced”. Go figure!… I wanted him to learn and figure out the problems himself. Even was willing to help him out later…but NOOOOooo! . Give me what I want now and forget about the “lernnin”. It was all shucking and jiving so he could skate through life. And you know what?… Most of his buddies were exactly the same. I’m not saying they couldn’t learn. They just didn’t give a damn. On the flip side were plenty of hard working minorites who were tops in class. No excuses there.
I suspect that the tax payers felt it was an awful lot of money to piss away on machines for students who can’t even spell. Penmanship has died with a keyboard. Also think that the school district IT folks probably wanted to torpedo any initiative that broke ranks with the MicroSloth Collective.
The computers weren’t leased from Apple, they were purchased with no discount given for the volume of computers bought. Furthermore, children were stealing them from others, and destroying the ones they had. Name another school district in Texas (or anywhere else) which GIVES a laptop to all of their students?
It is rumored that the past board got paybacks from Apple for the sweetheart deal.