“Greater Atlanta Christian Schools on Thursday announced the launch of a massive Apple technology initiative that will put new laptops in the hands of more than 1,200 students and place higher tuition bills in the mailboxes of parents,” D. Aileen Dodd reports for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Starting in August, the Norcross private school will equip every student in grades six through 12 with a new MacBook loaded with GAC software. It will be one of Apple’s largest school technology rollouts in the nation. The laptops will be paired as a learning tool with another essential many tech-savvy students already have, an iPod,” Dodd reports.
MacDailyNews Note: It’s hardly one of “Apple’s largest school technology rollouts in the nation,” but it’s nice to see regardless.
“Talk of the multimillion-dollar upgrade was greeted by cheers Thursday at an assembly held to announce the iLearn technology initiative, which is being funded in part by GAC’s endowment, its magazine fund-raiser and tuition increases,” Dodd reports. “GAC MacBooks will even be provided to students who already have laptops at home. The laptops will carry insurance and tech support. Students, however, must provide their own iPod touch devices.”
Dodd reports, “The upgrade will mean that tuition for elementary school students will jump from $12,150 to $13,100, a 7.8 percent increase. Older students will see a 13.8 percent increase, with their bills rising from $12,645 to $14,400. The prices will still be lower than those at most private schools. Median tuition at private schools in Georgia ranged from about $15,000 for elementary schools to $19,700 for high schools last year, according to the National Association of Independent Schools.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Congrats, GAC students!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gary B.” for the heads up.]
“It will be one of Apple’s largest school technology rollouts in the nation.” Haven’t there been school districts of tens of thousands of students that have given students Macs? How is 1200 so big?
School motto.
Raising tomorrow’s Republicans on the Right computer.
Vouchers for all school children in the USA. That might start to fix the meltdown of the system. All these parents of private school kids also pay public school taxes. If I was in charge of a Catholic school system, I would close ALL my schools for a month and have all the paying students register at the public schools, just to show them which way was up.
Step in the right direction. Now to address those flying teapots orbiting in our solar system. (think about it)
Heh…..a parochial school district buys computers from one of the most progressive and fair-minded companies on the planet. Maybe it’s Steve Jobs’ evil plan to make more than ten percent of the kids gay by having them type on gay-friendly Apple’s computers.
Those private schools in Georgia are so cheap… Private schools here in NYC can go as high as $35,000 (for kindergarten; even higher for higher grades). Even the UN school (one of the cheaper — yet better — private schools) is over $22k per year…
How can an average working family afford to put their child(ren) through private schooling anymore? What has the world come to…
God chooses Macs.
Don’t worry. Just get on with your life. There probably isn’t a God.
Gives a whole new meaning to the term Mac evangelist.
@Big Als MBP,
Nice.
So, by your “logic”, no Democrats send their children to Christian school. That’s a peculiar position, since Democrats are usually quite quick to point out that Republicans don’t have the market cornered on faith and values.
That leaves me wondering… Are Christians exclusively Republican, or are Christians both Democrat and Republican and you’re just a left-wing ideologue?
I’m going with the latter.
“That leaves me wondering… Are Christians exclusively Republican, or are Christians both Democrat and Republican and you’re just a left-wing ideologue?”
It doesn’t matter. They’re all getting screwed by the system.
Obama can afford a private school now – he IS the system.
It doesn’t matter. They’re all getting screwed by the system.
Good point.
The Abrahamic [misguided] religions, Christianity, Islam & Judaism all form the root cause of the worlds problems. Thanks but no thanks. Not surprising MDN picks this drivel up and runs it up the flag pole, how very glen beck… sad really.
@Larry
Amen brother.
@Ahh religion
You suggested that:
“The Abrahamic [misguided] religions, Christianity, Islam & Judaism all form the root cause of the worlds problems.”
This is what God says (James 4:1-3)
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.
@Ahh religion
Don’t you worry, even if no religions existed, we humans would still find plenty of reasons to kill each other. That stance you espouse is so wonderfully illogical, ironic considering people like yourself take pride in using logic and reason.
Yes this is very good news for all us crazy Christians. Now we can launch our master plan to help the poor, treat our neighbors as we want to be treated, stand up for the weak, forgive our enemies, and help make this world a better place for all. Just think what your world will look like when we achieve all these goals and that’s only the beginning for our ultimate sinister goal is to love everyone according to 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13: 1-13.
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@ ecrab,
Actually I’m an atheist who is also a fiscal conservative.
My post was a joke, a play on the word right.
Get a life.
do any of these laptops for schoolkids rollouts actually occur outside of the US? Back when I was at secondary school in the UK, i think it was in 93/94, a bunch of Mac Colour Classics appeared in my English classroom and I suddenly had an interest in doing actual schoolwork.. Clarisworks enabled me to produce amazing looking essays. Meanwhile my geography teacher was proud of his new set of Windows 3.1 machines with Word and all that. I remember trying to write a document and giving up after 5 minutes. Yet every break and lunchtime the room with the colour classics was packed with kids playing games or just messing around with Clarisworks paint module. Years later at university, whenever I had to do a presentation I would loan the Pismo G3 powerbook from the library and then hook it up to the projector to show my Powerpoints, much to the amazement of all my lecturers who until that point had only seen students doing presentations using printed acetate on OHP (overhead projectors).
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So for me just having limited access to a mac in order to do my schoolwork was always a luxury… but I know that if I had my own laptop it would have been a massive distraction, I would have always been fiddling around with system prefs rather than listening to teacher! So does it really work to give kids laptops? As I said.. so far it seems to be a US thing, if it was actually a good idea wouldn’t have countries in europe and elsewhere followed suit? Surely you can’t beat having a teacher, writing stuff on some kind of whiteboard (big ass table or whatever) with undivided attention of the pupils, if they’ve all got laptops then aren’t they just going to look at their screens instead of teacher?
@Ahh religion:
“The Abrahamic [misguided] religions, Christianity, Islam & Judaism all form the root cause of the worlds problems. Thanks but no thanks. Not surprising MDN picks this drivel up and runs it up the flag pole, how very glen beck… sad really.”
Don’t forget Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot to name a few quickly from the last 100 years! What this world needs in to run it up these fellow’s anti-religion flag pole, right?
Now all they need are Jesus phones!
I know it’s off topic but I disagree with the poster above who said humans are naturally homicidal… That is just blatant anti-humanist propaganda. You really have no evidence that people very murderous at all. On the contrary, I believe it’s only after hallucinatory god-driven behaviours started popping up in Mesopotamia ~1200BC that there is any record of mass bloodshed at all. After the idea of absent ruler gods came into being, the sociopaths really went to town. You really are sadly misinformed if you think anything close to a majority of individuals are man-killers.
“Yes this is very good news for all us crazy Christians. Now we can launch our master plan to help the poor, treat our neighbors as we want to be treated, stand up for the weak. . . .”
Oh, those poor, weak $13,500-a-year (if not semester) Christian private-school students.
I’m so relieved that someone, at last, is thinking of the children!
@ DX,
“I disagree with the poster above who said humans are naturally homicidal… “
Ok then, explain the extinction of the Neanderthals.
@ Mac007
I happen to be a junior a GACS, you have NO IDEA what our school does, “Oh, those poor, weak $13,500-a-year (if not semester) Christian private-school students.” We are currently sending about HALF of our high school on mission trips. Also, its per year tuition not semester, in case you were wondering. DO NOT make assumptions about people you wish you had the potential to be, you sir, or woman, have throughly made a fool of yourself in your short comment.