“Henrico County’s [Virginia] landmark laptop computer initiative for high-school students will continue. By a vote of 4-0 (with one abstention), Henrico’s School Board followed the recommendation of Superintendent Fred Morton Feb. 24 and authorized school officials to issue a request for proposal (RFP), which will solicit specific contract proposals from computer vendors in order to continue the program,” Tom Lappas reports for The Henrico Citizen.
“The school system’s initial four-year contract with Apple for the lease of iBook computers for high-school students and teachers will expire June 30. (A four-year contract with Apple for middle-school iBooks will expire on the same date next year. Its possible extension will be considered separately by the School Board at a later date.) School officials hope to draft and issue a RFP for the continuation of the high-school laptop program within the next two weeks, Morton told the Citizen following the board’s vote. All proposals likely would be due within two or three weeks after that, he said. Morton and HCPS administrative officials then would review the proposals, and Morton would recommend one to the School Board,” Lappas reports.
“Funding in the amount of $3 million for the continuation of the high-school laptop program for the 2005-06 school year is included in the School Board¹s budget request, which it approved Feb. 24. The county’s Board of Supervisors will consider that request in the coming months before adopting a final budget in April,” Lappas reports.
Full article here.
More about Apple and the Henrico County Public Schools’ program here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Henrico poll finds students are using iBooks successfully – February 11, 2005
Henrico iBooks raise concerns among some parents – May 28, 2004
its been 4 years already??? damn
wonder what the cost were
apple could use this as advertisement
Apple does use this as advertisement. Regardless of what you may want to believe, they don’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts.
This is prime exposure for their brand. When these kids get out of school and begin to buy their own computer systems, they will buy what they are familiar with.
In a way, I’d like to see them go with Dell or somebody other than Apple. Then with all the problems, they’d have with Windows, viruses, and spyware, they would see why Apple was the better choice. Unfortunately, they would probably hire more staff to deal with the problems which would then mean job security to stay with Dell. So forget what I said. Stay with Apple.
TheConfuzed1: No…I’m pretty sure Apple does it out of the goodness of their heart. The fact that their goodness is profitable is beside the point.
The most interesting point: “vote of 4-0 (with one abstention)” shows how well the program went. Is it safe to assume that the Macs performed so well, it was an easy decision to extend the program?
KennyLucius: I’m pretty sure Apple does it out of the goodness of their heart. The fact that their goodness is profitable is beside the point.
I agree – in interviews I’ve read Steve Jobs many, many years ago showed his own personal desire for promoting education, especially as he had some bad and then a life-changing experience at school with a teacher who stuck it out with him. Also, you’ll notice if you listen to Alan Deutchman’s “Second Coming of Steve Jobs” on audible.com that Steve is almost addicted to excellence in all things, and that’s why the NeXt computer was so radical and pretty-much aimed only at colleges and universities (high-end features for high-end learning). Anyone else read the book / heard the audio?
KennyLucius: I’m pretty sure Apple does it out of the goodness of their heart. The fact that their goodness is profitable is beside the point.
What I (ahcas) meant to clarify is that I agree with Kenny that there is definitely a heart-felt desire from Apple AKA Steve Jobs to run these kind of education programs, but naturally, they need to be profitable, but that is not the main focus of the program. Rather, I believe there is a genuine motive for assisting education which happens to also be profitable and provides exposure for Apple; this ultimately helps education in the long-term as well as Apple being profitable means Apple being able to continue their innovation and provide the best solution for not only education, but consumers, business, graphics etc.
THEY WENT WITH DELL. WHAT A HUGE MISTAKE. I hope everything falls crashing down.
The switch will be a huge mess. I can’t even begin to imagine.