I think Apple has an edge, and will probably win for 1 main reason. and that is that they are even considering apple. most schools would go dell and never look back. but apparently letting apple in the door means something significant in my opinion. and with the success of the other schools I think Apple will win this easily. They will have nice laptops, durable laptops, preloaded with all the software that a student or teacher would ever need, a painless setup for airport cards and base stations, virus free, and much much more. and most importantly of all, they deal with one company. ibook messes up send it to apple, questions about the OS and talk to apple about it, setting up airport base staions and cards can be dealt with apple. there is no doubt in mind that apple will be able to blow them away with ease and power that comes with these laptops, and I know dell can undercut them. But when you are looking at this many computers and money, schools arent really thinking of the lowest price, they are looking for the best investment and what will get the job done.
iJon