A new report has found that the millions of taxpayer-funded Chromebooks that flooded schools during the pandemic are being discarded because of their expiration dates. There is legislation at the Illinois Statehouse in House Bill 3601 which would give schools the tools, information and parts they need to repair their broken laptops.
This is a giant problem. The school districts only actually pay a portion of the cost of the Chromebooks and other IT related products for the schools. Depending on the district’s level of poverty, they can apply for Erate finding to cover up to 90% of the cost of the equipment from this federal program. This program is into the many billions of funding – each year. The Districts motivation to address this issue may not be very high at all because these didnt really cost them that much money, it certainly cost the tax payer, but not the District.… Read more »
87Saluki
3 years ago
Government largess (waste) creating even more environmental waste. Nothing new under the sun.
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
This is a giant problem. The school districts only actually pay a portion of the cost of the Chromebooks and other IT related products for the schools. Depending on the district’s level of poverty, they can apply for Erate finding to cover up to 90% of the cost of the equipment from this federal program. This program is into the many billions of funding – each year. The Districts motivation to address this issue may not be very high at all because these didnt really cost them that much money, it certainly cost the tax payer, but not the District.… Read more »
Government largess (waste) creating even more environmental waste. Nothing new under the sun.