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http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/06/11/notebooks.also.available.through.leasing.program/

School forces parents to pay for students' MacBooks

updated 08:45 am EDT, Fri June 11, 2010

Notebooks also available through leasing program

A new program in Beverly, Massachusetts aims to outfit every high-school student with a new MacBook. Although such technology programs are not uncommon, Beverly High School is asking parents to foot the bill upfront or through a leasing program with an option to buy the device after three years. Monthly cost is said to range from $20 to $25, with financial assistance available for eligible families.

Parents have voiced frustration over the terms of the program, which excludes Windows systems even if the students already own one. Superintendent James Hayes suggests the school will only have "one platform, and that's going to be the Mac," according to a Salem News report.

"You're kidding me," said parent Jenn Parisella, who bought her daughter a Dell. "She has a laptop. Why would I buy her another laptop?"

The school, which enrolls approximately 1,200 students, suggests the price of providing free notebooks would exceed $1 million. Other schools have taken advantage of state funding and sponsorship, however the Massachusetts government has reportedly reduced its allocations for the technology programs.

by MacNN Staff

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education, MacBook, Massachusetts

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Comments

DanielSw
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2009

+1

06/11, 09:43am | report spam | close Reply |
Interesting stance

It's music to my Mac ears, and it's as if they're having to wean these people off of their Windoze drugs. Another nail in the MS coffin.

Roehlstation
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

+6

06/11, 09:49am | report spam | close Reply |
And..

The taxpayers rejoice!

mustango
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2008

-1

06/11, 09:56am | report spam | close Reply |
*wince*

What I think about government schools and their spending habits aside, this story has in it a very uncomfortable echo of the Windows-only shops of the 90's.

I don't want to see Apple turn into Microsoft II.

Jonathan-Tanya
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2004

-10

06/11, 10:18am | report spam | close Reply |
public vs. private schools

The difference between public schools and private schools, is the public schools are provided by the government.

But schools, as they continue to increase the fee's they charge, are essentially morphing into government run corporations.

Money if fungible. All these schools had money for laptops, but they spent it on teacher raises instead. Now the fee comes for the laptops.

Educators cry that they make so little, don't you believe it, they make far more money than average, and while everyone else has been feeling the squeeze, they have not. They simply scheme up the next plan to pass the burden on to parents.

facebook_John
Via Facebook

Joined: Jun 2010

+2

06/11, 10:19am | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
Why?

"You're kidding me," said parent Jenn Parisella, who bought her daughter a Dell. "She has a laptop. Why would I buy her another laptop?"

How about because, having decided to use Macs, any applications the students will be required to use will be Mac application and therefore won't run on that Dell.

Jonathan-Tanya
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2004

-8

06/11, 10:28am | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
2% raise for the next 3 years

While many people are losing their jobs, Beverly, MA teachers are guaranteed a 2% raise for the next 3 years.

Where are they getting money for it? Almost all tax money goes to provide salaries, they pass on the cost of other initiatives in the form of sending the bill to parents.

Schools, while funded by the taxpayer, increasingly are refusing to spend the money on anything except salaries...its true all over the nation.

Bearcat
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2009

+5

06/11, 10:29am | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
Ok....

If the school is going to charge the parents $25/month to lease the Macbook, why wouldn't the parents then just go to the Apple store and buy one on credit? It would cost pretty much the same and they could get a free 8GB iPod Touch for free through the education store. Seems like a better deal to me.

jpellino
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 1999

+4

06/11, 10:33am | report spam | close Reply |
misguided

I'm a big fan of laptop programs, but this is a false start - either get the money and ease them into the program after the first year, or foot it. As long as you are going to require them there has to be some accommodation.

TomSawyer
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2008

-2

06/11, 10:48am | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
Its about support

School Districts and other large organizations need to have most if not all users on the same platform for sanity's sake with respect to support. If not it would be like having to design an OS that had to work well around every combination of logic board, graphics card, NIC, and expansion module...its just plain impossible. Windoze as case-in-point. ;-)

facebook_Dustin
Via Facebook

Joined: Jun 2010

-3

06/11, 10:54am | report spam | (1 reply) close Reply |
Really?!

When I first read the title, I was under the impression that the parents had to foot an $800-1000 bill for their student to get a Macbook. Now that I see it's only like $20-25 a month, I feel differently about the article. Firstly, that isn't a lot of money for most families, they probably pay more for the cell phones their kids take to school than it costs to lease a Macbook. Secondly, these kids are in high school! Have them get a job and have them pay for it, it'll teach them some financial responsibility. I have been working since I was 14 and saved up to buy my first Mac for over 7 months at a minimum wage job.
I wish my school would have done that when I was in school, I would have paid to use the latest greatest tech.

I don't see what the problem these parents face. The school is providing assistance for those families who are having trouble, and again, $20 isn't that much.

thedude
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2006

+1

06/11, 10:59am | report spam | close Reply |
Many smart people have claimed

That being a teacher is like being a janitor. Your job is necessary, but just about anyone can do it. And the self loathing "we don't make enough" or "it's hard"... and and and. I get so sick of this c*** that I can barely stand it. Then every year my kid is at school they change how they teach math or how they teach reading. Then I am looking at what they are doing and it is like the only thing that the children end up being able to do is take a test...... ie a. b. or c. And even then are not really that good at it. And if they fail to be able to make your student understand this c***, then they put them in special needs. Why? Because the per student allotment for this is higher. Once again, c***! Then I hear things like this. Let's give all high school students a laptop. Yeah that will make school better. Which on its face is not true. How about replacing all printed books with digital copies and give everyone iPads instead. This actually makes more sense to me than the laptop. As computers are not necessary for learning and really add little value to most classes. People here seem to be mad about paying, I don't care so much about paying, but why don't we actually focus on teaching rather than placating to someone's idea of what is better.

Keys to success in life. Being able to formulate a problem. Critical analysis. Reading for understanding. Spoken and written arguments. That's pretty much it. Everything else is just entertainment. And although we live in a entertainment driven culture, at the base this is not necessary. History can be learned through exploration. But understanding history can only be accomplished if you teach a student how to think critically. Or at least give them the tools to do so. Laptops are not needed for this.

Zeeb
Mac Elite

Joined: Feb 2006

+4

06/11, 11:17am | report spam | close Reply |
Ridiculous

Forcing parents to purchase a pricey laptop even though their kids may already own one is beyond stupid. I can't imagine this is going to last. I love macs and own many Apple products--but they are not cheap compared to PC's. These students definitely need to learn computer skills, but the school needs to teach them in a school funded computer lab.

Schools should be fully funded by taxes and all these surcharges are getting out of hand. Might as well send your kids to private school.

herojig
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2009

0

06/11, 11:43am | report spam | close Reply |
Make them get an iPad...

Laptops are so old school:)

MichaelNH
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2002

+1

06/11, 12:48pm | report spam | close Reply |
Optional purchase.

The program says that if the kids want to take the laptops home, then they will need to buy them up front or over time. If the kids/parents DON'T want to take them home, they don't owe a penny. The student just keeps their laptop at school. It's not mandatory at all.

testudo
Forum Regular

Joined: Aug 2001

+1

06/11, 01:31pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Its about support

School Districts and other large organizations need to have most if not all users on the same platform for sanity's sake with respect to support.

Isn't that the same excuse IT people give for supporting only Windows machines, and isn't that the same excuse that gets killed every time it is spoken as being complete garbage?

testudo
Forum Regular

Joined: Aug 2001

+1

06/11, 01:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Why?

How about because, having decided to use Macs, any applications the students will be required to use will be Mac application and therefore won't run on that Dell.

What applications? I seriously doubt any of the students would need to run any Mac-only applications (what, you think they also need to run Pages and Numbers? That's more money, you know!).

Most of these idiotic "a laptop for every student" concepts ends up being so all the kids can look c*** up on google or wikipedia, or do something really stupid, like make PowerPoint presentations (sersiously, a co-worker has kids in like the third grade who are doing PPT presentations - like WTF is happening to this world???). I seriously doubt the school is going to have a bunch of custom apps that are Mac only that the kids need to run (h***, if they have custom apps, they should be web apps so it wouldn't matter if the kids run Windows, Linux, or whatever).

testudo
Forum Regular

Joined: Aug 2001

+2

06/11, 01:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
I Wonder....

Oh, and from the article
Superintendent James Hayes suggests the school will only have "one platform, and that's going to be the Mac," according to a Salem News report.

Man, he sounds like one of those 'fanboys'.

Or perhaps, one has to ask how much of a kick-back is he getting from their supplier from pushing all mac?

testudo
Forum Regular

Joined: Aug 2001

-2

06/11, 01:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Optional purchase.

The program says that if the kids want to take the laptops home, then they will need to buy them up front or over time. If the kids/parents DON'T want to take them home, they don't owe a penny. The student just keeps their laptop at school. It's not mandatory at all.

The admin says it would cost $1 million to buy all the students a laptop. Um, what happens if no one opts in on this? They'll need to buy 1200 laptops. Or did no one at the school think that over.

And you have to wonder how critical it is if it is optional. And if the laptops are going to be used for homework, why isn't it mandatory.

And are these laptops coming with built-in 3G data plans? Or does every household in the school have internet access?

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School forces parents to pay for students' MacBooks

updated 08:45 am EDT, Fri June 11, 2010

Notebooks also available through leasing program

Interesting stance

And..

wince

public vs. private schools

Why?

2% raise for the next 3 years

Ok....

misguided

Its about support

Really?!

Many smart people have claimed

Ridiculous

Make them get an iPad...

Optional purchase.

Re: Its about support

Re: Why?

I Wonder....

Re: Optional purchase.

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School forces parents to pay for students' MacBooks

updated 08:45 am EDT, Fri June 11, 2010

Notebooks also available through leasing program

Related Articles

Recent Articles

Interesting stance

And..

*wince*

public vs. private schools

Why?

2% raise for the next 3 years

Ok....

misguided

Its about support

Really?!

Many smart people have claimed

Ridiculous

Make them get an iPad...

Optional purchase.

Re: Its about support

Re: Why?

I Wonder....

Re: Optional purchase.

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

Follow us

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Most Read

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MacNN Marketplace

wince