
Why Hoboken Is Throwing Away All Its Student Laptops - matt_morgan
http://www.wnyc.org/story/why-hoboken-throwing-away-all-its-student-laptops/
======
posty
A lot of these problems aren't so much 'computer problems' but poor
administration.

Schools decided they needed to lock things down so much slowed down the
laptops. If a child is looking at things they shouldn't in class they should
be disciplined by the teacher, not having software do the teachers job that
they can google how to get around. get a fucking proxy for one. if they're
that concerned, whitelist sites (however that would be a major major pain in
the ass).

some minor expenditure on setting up a standard image and a school network
supporting PXE rebuilds would at least solve some of these issues. (got a
virus? hit f12 to rebuild. little johnny lost his work? little johnny just
learnt the value of backing up his data.).

getting a decent router and having administration of a approved mac list (yes
they can be spoofed but it's a hurdle that most ipad using parents/etc
wouldn't do). or just changing the password every term goddamit.

they also bought cheap, bad notebooks, why are they not surprised that the
lifecycle is short?

frustrating reading things like this but it's not surprising.

------
anigbrowl
_“Probably in the last few months I’ve had quite a few principals and
superintendents call and say, ‘I bought these 500 iPads or 1,000 laptops
because the district next to us just bought them,’ and they’re like, now what
do we do?” Powell said._

Argh. This reminds me of the many problems that stem from schools buying books
and lending them to the students, which I think is madness. Have students buy
their own books, and subsidize the students directly if they're poor, using
vouchers or something. Kids are much more likely to look after
books/laptops/whatever if they're answerable to their parents for the cost.

~~~
dalke
I don't recognize the situation you described. In my school system, if a book
had excess damage (beyond normal wear and tear) then the parents had to pay
damage fees. That is, the kids _are_ "answerable to their parents for the
cost."

Eg, from [http://kennedymiddleschool.weebly.com/textbook-
replacement-c...](http://kennedymiddleschool.weebly.com/textbook-replacement-
costs.html) : "The parent, guardian, or other person having custody of the
student to whom the instructional materials are issued shall be liable for any
loss, abuse, or damage in excess of that which would result from normal use of
the materials."

The same holds for library books. Eg,
[http://www.christina.k12.de.us/pulaski/library/](http://www.christina.k12.de.us/pulaski/library/)
"Please be aware that if your child takes out a book and either loses it or
damages it, the school district requires that the book be paid for or worked
off. This can affect whether or not your child receives a report card."

Also, textbooks can last for many years.
[http://www.rcsnc.org/departments/curriculum_and_instruction/...](http://www.rcsnc.org/departments/curriculum_and_instruction/textbooks__professional_library/textbook_damage_fees/)
for example uses a 5 year depreciation schedule. Wouldn't your proposal mean
either that parents are paying about 5x more than they should, or introduce
new overhead costs of creating a secondary market for parents to sell used
textbooks to other parents?

~~~
dragonwriter
> Wouldn't your proposal mean either that parents are paying about 5x more
> than they should, or introduce new overhead costs of creating a secondary
> market for parents to sell used textbooks to other parents?

Well, sure, but think of the benefits for _textbook publishers_. It'd be like
extending the college textbook market down into grade school.

~~~
anigbrowl
Where I'm from (Ireland/UK) students buy their own books, but they're much
much cheaper than the US. I think the price of grade school textbooks is high
because it's school districts doing the buying. College textbooks are also a
lot cheaper, eg I'd expect to pay about $30-40 for a typical textbook from a
major publisher like Pearson or similar. I got a hell of a shock when I moved
to the US and found college-level textbooks to be 3-4 times more expensive
than what I was used to.

~~~
dragonwriter
Since both college and grade school texts are more expensive in the US, as you
report, it seems more likely that there is a common cause for the difference
in book prices rather than the price difference for grade school texts being
due to school districts buying them.

~~~
anigbrowl
My (under-researched) theory is that by the time people get to college,
they've already been acclimatized to the idea that textbooks should be very
expensive by 12 years of grade school, so most of them passively accept the
egregiously high prices.

Part of my interest in this stems from my surprise at learning that my wife
saved a few thousand $ by buying almost all her college textbooks from the UK,
despite the high shipping fees. Too bad this wasn't an option for law books
:-/

~~~
dalke
US college students don't "passively accept the egregiously high prices." Most
are shocked about the prices, and there is no acclimatization to the idea that
books "should be very expensive."

See
[http://www.lib.umich.edu/files/SPOTextbookBackground.pdf](http://www.lib.umich.edu/files/SPOTextbookBackground.pdf)
for some background information.

One reason for the high price is that the text book publishers have a short
revision cycle. If the book chapters and page numbers change a bit every
couple of years, and especially if the problem sets change, then there's
little resale value.

Another is the bundling of workbook material (just like I pointed out for
Ireland), even though most instructors don't use that material. This also
makes it harder to resell the book.

As it says: "What makes students’ textbook purchases even less responsive to
price increases than any other commodities is that many faculty members choose
and assign their textbooks with little regard to the cost of the textbooks"

As I pointed out, the increase in freedom of choice by Irish instructors
caused similar reductions in resale value of primary and secondary school text
books in that country.

