Investigation finds Cobb School Board 'deceived' the publi...

[MacBytes]

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Category: News and Press Releases
Link: Investigation finds Cobb School Board 'deceived' the public, Apple iBook deal terminated (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20050815141102)

Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
Approved by Mudbug

[nagromme]

A bed result for all concerned--especially the students.

But it sounds like this WAS mishandled, and that those people may be the ones to blame, rather than blaming the people who prompted the investigation:

"Central Office staff "refused to tell the truth" to Kessler's investigators. "The responses by the personnel conveyed misleading information in certain aspects and false information in others," the report stated. "Those responsible clearly wanted to create a false impression of the results of the negotiation to justify thier decision."

There were "discrepancies" in record-keeping to tie the deal together."

Of course mountains can be made of molehills if you can get the press to give you a pulpit, so we may never know the full truth.

[dxp4acu]

Sounds like someone just likes Apple. They just don't "get it" why someone wouldn't go with Dell...

...maybe because it rhymes with hell...

[montex]

I don't pretend to know anything about wether or not this administrator mishandled the purchase of Apple iBooks. But I WON'T be surprised to learn that sometime in the future the program wins approval when the contract is awarded to a PC laptop manufacturer like Dell or HP.

/Cynical? Me?

[Kagetenshi]

If I had to guess what was going on here (and was assuming some sort of "foul play"), I'd guess an Apple fan tried to stack the deck—somehow I don't see Apple corporate being in on this. It's unfortunate, and hopefully they'll still end up with Apple—otherwise someone will need some serious face-stabbing.

~J

[jhu]

why are school districts handing out laptops? why, back in my day we used paper, pencils, and our brain.

[aarond12]

why are school districts handing out laptops? why, back in my day we used paper, pencils, and our brain.

We used rocks, sticks, and moss. And we walked to school, 25 miles in the snow, uphill both ways! Young whippersnappers...

[remingtonhill]

why are school districts handing out laptops? why, back in my day we used paper, pencils, and our brain.

When I was in school calculators were frowned upon (and this was in the late 80's and early 90's.)

I understand it's important for todays youth to be computer literate, but giving 6th-12th graders laptops is going overboared. Most of these kids who live in communities with schools capable of affording a program like this have multiple computers at home.

Trust me, in my work, I talk to the parents of these kids all the time. They are usually buying $2K iMacs or $2.5K Powerbooks because they are impressed with OSX on the G4 iBooks. (and these expensive macs the parents are buying are replacing P4 Dells, or if not replacing, the parents are asking how to network their 2 home Windows XP PCs to their new 17" Powerbook they are purchasing, in addition to 12 y.o. little Billy's school provided 12" G4 iBook.)

I'm sure kids who live in the Chicago Projects are receiving computers of any kind to take home.