toggle

AAPL Stock: 562.29 ( -3.03 )

MacNN News

Cobb County terminates contract with Apple

updated 08:10 am EDT, Mon August 15, 2005

iBook program terminated

The Cobb County School Board has moved to for students based on funding concerns. The Board's decision, which also stops plans to provide Cobb's more that 7,100 teachers with the laptops, was "based on an investigation that found that the school system 'deceived' the public in choosing the company to supply it with thousands of laptops," according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Sunday's decision came after the board received the report from Kessler International, a company that specializeds in corpporate investigations." The report found that Apple got the contract even though it appears the company did not initially make the final cut of companies to be considered.

by MacNN Staff

(25)

TAGS :

education

Share the Article

Facebook Twitter Delious Slash Dot Digg

toggle

Comments

dimplemonkey
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2001

0

08/15, 08:20am | report spam | close Reply |
Yikes.

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.

mouseketter
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2004

0

08/15, 08:23am | report spam | close Reply |
Within 90 days...

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contract has been awarded to Dell or the tax that made this program possible was unconditional and therefore will be repealed.

driven
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: May 2001

0

08/15, 08:38am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: to yikes

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.

ibugv4
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2003

0

08/15, 08:38am | report spam | close Reply |
wtf?

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.

paulc
Junior Member

Joined: Aug 2000

0

08/15, 09:01am | report spam | close Reply |
Sheesh

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."

Makosuke
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

08/15, 09:19am | report spam | close Reply |
I Don't Quite Get It

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.

rok
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 1999

0

08/15, 09:55am | report spam | close Reply |
re: i dont quite get it

"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.

Jonathan-Tanya
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2004

0

08/15, 10:14am | report spam | close Reply |
calculator laptop

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.

ibugv4
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2003

0

08/15, 10:44am | report spam | close Reply |
teachers paid too much

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? :)

jimothy
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2000

0

08/15, 11:03am | report spam | close Reply |
re: Sheesh

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".

kaisdaddy
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2005

0

08/15, 11:06am | report spam | close Reply |
I'd rather not...

...hug a state employee, if that's OK with you. But I'll be nice to them. =)

It looks like Apple really has very little to do with this whole deal other than that they were going to be the supplying vendor.

Personally, I don't think 6-year olds need a computer. It's far more important that kids learn the lost arts - reading (including comprehension), writing and basic math skills. Schools in the US are not producing illiterate kids who are not competitive in the world market because they don't have computers. It's because they pass them to the next grade without them actually having learned basic skills. BUT - they do have tons of self-esteem!

kaisdaddy
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2005

0

08/15, 11:08am | report spam | close Reply |
Ummmm...

...Apple's logo has nothing to do with original sin. Read a Bible some time when you get a chance. There's no mention of an apple - only a non-descript fruit.

beverson
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Oct 1999

0

08/15, 11:23am | report spam | close Reply |
school funding

Look, I don't live or teach in Cobb County, so I can't attest to that situation specifically. But I am a public school teacher, and I can unequivocally tell you:

1) In general, teachers around the country are under-paid (as are most state employees, as someone else mentioned).

2) As much as I love computers and think they can be a huge benefit to me in doing my job, most teachers don't have a clue how to effectively use technology in the classroom. Without proper training and support, and a careful plan as to how to encourage their effective use, giving a laptop to every student is a huge waste of money that could otherwise improve our education system in hundreds of different ways. Besides salary, there's books, other materials, hiring more teachers (small class sizes), physical plant improvements, building new schools, professional development for teachers, etc., etc., etc.

I have no idea how this, or any, of the give-a-laptop-to-every-student initiatives was supposed to be implemented re: training and support -- technical and otherwise. I'm sure some of the successful ones were well-done. But as someone who is pushing hard for effective use of technology in classrooms, and as someone who knows at least a little bit about how school districts and school boards operate, I find myself very skeptical of such programs from the start even as I would be also excited to find myself in a school/district that had such a program.

Scott_R
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2005

0

08/15, 11:31am | report spam | close Reply |
Diverted funding

Reading the judge's decision in the case, the probem was that Cobb County school officials had advertised this tax referendum--and I use "advertised" literally, with full color brochures, etc.--as a plan to refurbish the entire school districts tech system, even so far down as new or refurbished copy machines. The onle ones to get laptops would be the teachers. When it came time to actually spend the money, however, they changed it to new laptops for middle and high schoolers. Elementary school kids would get essentially nothing--even their schools would be stuck with the same outdated equipment.

Whatever you think of the merits of a laptop program like this (and I'd have been happy if Apple got this contract), you simply can't switch money taxpayer-approved for one purpose to a different one, even if you happen to like the alternative. What if it was a program you DIDN'T like? If legal approval is given for a specific purpose, that purpose has to be followed. Cobb County pushed for approval for a very particular plan; if they wanted to change that plan, they'd need approval for such a change.

MacnnGregor
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2004

0

08/15, 12:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
I am ambivalent...

... about the use of funds for laptops myself. My dad was a middle school math teacher and I remember when he brought home the Apple II to try it out. I was probably one of the first in my neighborhood to see a pc at home. I really only spent time playing the Moon Lander game (still one of the coolest games!), and I don't think he used it at all. Now he's retired and he still doesn't know how to use email!?!?!? An intelligent teacher?!?!?

There is an incredible amount of training that still needs to take place with teachers and that is in my mind the #1 need for funding. Laptops should be either checked out yearly or subsidized somehow, but giveaways aren't enough. If each teacher could shadow a teacher that does use the technology effectively, that would be enough for them to get the idea and try it.

ZinkDifferent
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2005

0

08/15, 12:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
Original Sin...

jimothy ("After all, Bible-beating Cobb County can't buy computers from a company whose logo is also a symbol of "Original Sin".") is probably closer to the truth behind the opposition to Apple than he thinks...

Bryson
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2002

0

08/15, 12:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
i dont think so

"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."

I doubt it. If they are too stupid to do any research as to why macs are better to begin with, certainly the thought of consulting with other school districts about the contract isn't on their agenda.

porieux
Baninated

Joined: Mar 2001

0

08/15, 01:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
yeah right

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

idiot

Makosuke
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

08/15, 02:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE: Diverted funding

Thank you, Scott R, for explaining this in more meaningful terms than these news blurbs; if what you say is true, then they had every right to be upset about this whether it was a good idea or not. You just don't go doing stuff like that.

Also, on the "overpaid teachers" comment, I'd sure like to know where you live that middle or high school teachers get paid so well. Up here in Northern CA the only teachers who make any kind of decent money are tenured university professors; everybody else (and I'm not pulling this out of my rear--my brother taught high school, and I know several other teachers) are paid miserably for their trouble, and usually have underequipped classrooms to boot. Their salary looks a little high per hour, but when you realize that it's per class hour and they usually spend several times that grading and doing preperation outside class, it averages out to not much more than you'd earn per hour at a supermarket. I certainly don't know a single teacher who's only doing it for the money.

Come to think of it, at work we did a survey of high school science teachers in CA a few years ago, finding out how to best get them to integrate advanced energy topics into their curriculi, and about the only consistent thing on all the responses we got was "if it costs money, it's not going to happen--we're broke".

just a poster
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2004

0

08/15, 04:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
Teachers=Paid too much

8 to 3 sounds like 6 hours of work to me. School runs from September to Junes which is 9 months of the year. When you consider teachers are paid $30-40,000 for what is essentially 55% of the work hours a normal 40-hour a week employee must follow (plus look at benefits like staying at home for three months, leaving work early, etc), teachers are basically netting the equivalent of 80,000+ a year.

Ridiculous if you ask me, especially to train in knowledge as low-level as grade or high school.

gwangung
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2003

0

08/15, 04:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
just a poster....

...isn't counting correctly.

8 to 3 are the MINIMUM working hours. Just because you're required to be in front of the kids during those hours doesn't mean those are the ONLY hours you're working [nor are those the only hours teachers are required to be at the school]

Try again. You get no points for effort.

beverson
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Oct 1999

0

08/15, 05:19pm | report spam | close Reply |
just a poster...

...you are a fool. I would like you to find me more than a handful of teachers -- even the bad ones -- who work only 30 hours a week. The summers off are fantastic, and I admit a huge perk, but when totaling up all the time I spend outside of the classroom that I don't specifically get compensated for and spread that out over 12 months, I easily work as much if not more hours than I did in my previous 8-5 office jobs. I'm no math teacher, but even I would fail your a** in that subject.

Your assumption of teacher salary, at least for the first 10 or so years of employment, is also off. In my district, you can only really earn that much with a Master's degree. Not only should an advanced degree be worth more, that blows apart your other assumption that teaching is so "low-level" in grade school and high school. Is it higher level in college? That's c***. Most college professors are smart, many even brilliant, but few can really teach well. Teaching is so much more than just knowing the content.

driven
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: May 2001

0

08/15, 10:48pm | report spam | close Reply |
College professors ....

Don't make the assumption that few college professors can teach really well. Quite a few of us *do* spend the effort to improve our teaching skills even to the point of getting additional degrees in Education. (Beyond our core skill set & beyond our primary degrees).

Sheesh ... Primary/High schools don't have a monopoly on "teaching well". :-)

beverson
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Oct 1999

0

08/16, 12:55am | report spam | close Reply |
re: College professors

That's really impressive, actually -- my apologies. I guess I should have said that in my experience in undergrad and grad school, I had a lot of profs who weren't very good teachers. Even ones I really liked a lot, and sadly even ones in education classes. I wish I'd had more profs like you. I'd even settle for ones who were equally dedicated to teaching and to their research/writing. Alas for me.

And if only we had a monopoly on teaching well, this whole discussion might be moot. :)

driven
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: May 2001

0

08/16, 11:17am | report spam | close Reply |
Point well taken ...

:-)

Show More Comments

Login Here

toggle

Network Headlines

05/25	Sotheby to auction Jobs Atari memo,...
05/25	Apple hiring new chip engineers for...
05/25	Third-gen iPad coming to Philippines...
05/25	Apple to integrate Baidu search into...
05/24	Apple submits surprise optical stylus...

Show All

05/25	Sotheby to auction Jobs Atari memo,...
05/25	Apple to integrate Baidu search into...
05/25	Google picks up webOS Enyo team, Open...
05/24	Apple submits surprise optical stylus...
05/24	Yahoo releases Axis 'visual search'...

Show All

05/25	Sotheby to auction Jobs Atari memo,...
05/23	Google launches redesigned Search app...
05/22	Leaked next-gen iPod touch part hints...
05/22	Hulu Plus updates with iPad Retina...
05/22	TiVo Stream to push TV to iPhones,...

Show All

03/02	Save $330 on refurb. 15.4-inch, 2.4GHz...
03/01	Pre-owned 8GB iPod touch 2G, drops...
02/29	$150 off Nikon Coolpix S80 Compact...
02/28	Plantronics BackBeat 903 Bluetooth...
02/27	Refurb. Seagate 1.5TB GoFlex Portable...

Show All

toggle

Cobb County terminates contract with Apple

updated 08:10 am EDT, Mon August 15, 2005

iBook program terminated

Yikes.

Within 90 days...

Re: to yikes

wtf?

Sheesh

I Don't Quite Get It

re: i dont quite get it

calculator laptop

teachers paid too much

re: Sheesh

I'd rather not...

Ummmm...

school funding

Diverted funding

I am ambivalent...

Original Sin...

i dont think so

yeah right

RE: Diverted funding

Teachers=Paid too much

just a poster....

just a poster...

College professors ....

re: College professors

Point well taken ...

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

Follow us

on Twitter

10 Most Read

10 Most Discussed

MacNN Marketplace

Cobb County terminates contract with Apple

updated 08:10 am EDT, Mon August 15, 2005

iBook program terminated

Related Articles

Recent Articles

Yikes.

Within 90 days...

Re: to yikes

wtf?

Sheesh

I Don't Quite Get It

re: i dont quite get it

calculator laptop

teachers paid too much

re: Sheesh

I'd rather not...

Ummmm...

school funding

Diverted funding

I am ambivalent...

Original Sin...

i dont think so

yeah right

RE: Diverted funding

Teachers=Paid too much

just a poster....

just a poster...

College professors ....

re: College professors

Point well taken ...

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

Follow us

on Twitter

10 Most Read

10 Most Discussed

MacNN Marketplace