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Tue 3 Jan, 2006 09:05 am
Apparently a school system in California is using computers in elementary schools. But they expect parents to pay for them. One of the problems, is that if a parent who cannot afford a computer for his child, he has to show financial information to the school officials, before he can recieve aid.
Quote:The public school system in this quiet city 27 miles southeast of Los Angeles is pushing the frontiers of computer technology in the classroom with a program that puts a laptop computer into the backpacks of children as early as first grade. It is pushing the boundaries of financing, too, by asking parents to pay $500 a year for three years so each of more than 2,000 elementary and middle school children can have their own Apple iBook G4 laptop.
But asking parents to pay for it isn't.
Link
What do you think of this? Should parents be obliged to pay for computers for their children in a public school?
No. It's part of the course work - or it isn't. Do we ask parents for a balance sheet before issuing text books?
The story doesn't indicate whether this school is affluent suburb or inner city.
In either case, parental participation could mean that the computers would be taken care of at home.
As for the financial aid information, they could probably just scan the "free lunch" and "reduced price lunch" lists.
Noddy- I have a problem with public schools requiring that parents buy expensive equipment for their children. We pay taxes to fund the schools. If the computers are a required resource, thay should be paid for by the school system, like textbooks.
Phoenix--
I share your reservations, but I think background information is missing.
Is this an affluent suburban school where the parents would rather pay for computers than pay for taxes to support all the schools in the system.
Is this an urban school with a principal who is used to wangling money from the state.
You and I are both too old and jaded to take bare facts as full facts.
Incidently, are you headed to Chicago for the Official Gathering? I doubt that I'll be able to swing that, but I'm hoping for some NYC intervals in the late winter/early spring.
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