Cobb County terminates contract with Apple

I know Apple will bounce back from this, but you know most school districts will consult with Cobb County to get the full skinny on how things got this ugly between them and Cupertino. It's a black eye for Apple that will heal as soon as they can sign another big contract.

Mark your iCal's. Within 90 days Cobb county will announce either a new contract has been awarded to Dell or the tax that made this program possible was unconditional and therefore will be repealed.

Things did not get ugly between Apple & Cobb County. They were on the same side.

Things got ugly between Cobb County and a few citizens who scream for more school funding (but only if it goes to teacher salaries or sports programs) with a former bitter governor and former school board member supporting them.

In short .... typical Cobb County, GA B.S.

This appears to be more of a Cobb County wants their kids ignorant to keep working McDonalds for the big tycoons that work at the banks and telecom there than run the risk of taking their jobs.

Yeah, some 60 something guy in a suit is really, really scared some 6 year old is going to threaten his job!

The issue very much is how tax money should be spent on education... admit it, there is a legitimate discussion when you think about a laptop computer for e 6 year old vs. paying teachers decent salaries, or having enough books, or keeping libraries open in the school system. That seemed to be the issue.

However, this "report" seems not to mention those issues at all, instead implying some hanky panky between the fruit and the school board. FAR more damaging to the fruit's reputation. If THIS becomes what most remember, forget "signing any other contracts."

If it IS remembered as an issue over school funding for laptops or not, then any school system would have to think 12 times about signing any contract for laptops, no matter what kind they are.

Of course, it will be an interesting story from the fruit in a few years "buy our machines and you can boot into winblowz OR the Mac OS."

Half of the reports on this issue that I've read basically implied that the board of education went out on their own to spend a huge amount of money on this laptop initiative without properly thinking it through and/or getting approval from those that should be approving.

This one, however, makes it sound like it fell through because the board made an improper effort to sign Apple up as the supplier. Which makes it sound like either the board had a MacOS jones that they didn't reflect in the bid process and/or took some improper payoff from Apple, or, alternately, that the opponents had a Windows jones and/or took some papyoff from one of the companies that didn't get the deal.

So which of the above is it? Just the board getting tech-happy and some taxpayers/parents reining them in, perhaps through a loophole in the bid process? Somebody greasing some palms? OS attachment issues? All of the above?

Surely someone can link a local paper that gives a more thorough treatment of what's really going on.

Also, for the record, you gotta be thinking VERY VERY CAREFULLY before you go buying 63,000 laptops--that's a whole hekcuva lot of money, so your teachers had better be getting paid properly, your schools already properly equipped, and there be a good reason to be giving all those kids laptops. Computers in the schools are a necessity, but a laptop in every bookbag is a big step that should be thought through completely.

"Also, for the record, you gotta be thinking VERY VERY CAREFULLY before you go buying 63,000 laptops--that's a whole hekcuva lot of money, so your teachers had better be getting paid properly, your schools already properly equipped, and there be a good reason to be giving all those kids laptops. Computers in the schools are a necessity, but a laptop in every bookbag is a big step that should be thought through completely."

i agree, but i have a paranoid suspicion that this program will go through, just with a different supplier.

substitute 'laptop' and 'calculator'

as costs come down and familiarity increases...laptops are as inevitable as calculators before them.

Laptops will happen.

As for teacher salaries...I'd hold off on that. Teacher's get paid far too much already.

I don't know about Atlanta, but in Raleigh the teachers aren't paid enough. Nor were they in Memphis. I venture to think the teachers don't make enough in Atlanta, too, and if increasing their pay (DOUBTFUL) is why they lose laptops I'm all for it. Teachers deserve more pay, as do all state employees -- have you hugged a State Employee today? :)

You raise some good points, paulc, but remember, this is for middle- and high-school students, not 6 year olds. Just to get the facts straight.

Frankly, I think that laptop computers for all students is a horrendously bad idea. It's taking money from other programs that need to be funded, provides more a distraction than an education tool, opens the opportunity for loss or theft, and is simply unnecessary. Cobb County is one of the wealthier school districts in the Atlanta metro. The schools already have computers, and the vast majority of students probably have at least one computer at home; they don't need to spend 6 hours at school each day with a computer when they are already spending more time than they ought to on AIM, Yahoo, etc.

But the sad thing is, I agree with a prediction above: Cobb County will probably announce a deal with Dell or some other Wintel reseller. Thus betraying the tax payers, just with a different vendor. And it'll probably be more quietly approved, despite the fact that nearly all the objects raised against the Apple deal will still apply to any other laptop deal (better to spend the money elsewhere, tax payers not aware that this tax increase would go towards laptops, etc.). After all, Bible-beating Cobb County can't buy computers from a company whose logo is also a symbol of "Original Sin".