FBI seizes LAUSD iPad documents; 20 boxes carted away in surprise visit

[Starry Messenger]

Source: LA Times

"FBI agents on Monday removed 20 boxes of documents from the Los Angeles Unified School District related to the awarding of contracts for the ill-fated $1.3 billion iPad project, officials confirmed.

The FBI visit surprised school officials, according to L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines.

"They stopped by late yesterday afternoon," Cortines said Tuesday. "I found out at 4:30 in the afternoon on Monday." Cortines said he then alerted the district's general counsel to notify the Board of Education.

<snip>

The iPads-for-all project was a signature initiative of his predecessor, John Deasy, who resigned under pressure in October. Deasy readily acknowledged that the project was an expensive draw from bond funds. But he said there was no other way to pay for what he called a civil rights imperative — to provide low-income students equal access to technology in the nation's second-largest school system."


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fbi-agents-take-ipad-documents-from-la-school-district-20141202-story.html

[TekGryphon]

1. Anyone buying Apple products with taxpayer funds should be sent to jail

A close-sourced system built on fragile, overpriced and outdated hardware that requires proprietary, overpriced peripherals? What a complete and utter waste of money.

I don't care what the "I stood in line for 6 hours to get these $300 pair of Jordans" or "my purse cost more than your mortgage payment" crowds waste their own money on, but school systems should never be catering to that BS.

They could have bought every child a Rasberry Pi, outfitted every desk with a unified keyboard/mouse peripheral set, and spent 1/4 as much in the initial batch and 1/10 as much in ongoing maintenance, all while teaching the kids 10x as much about technology basics.

[Starry Messenger]

4. It was a showboating maneuver

Deasy fell in love with his own razzle-dazzle.

Your proposal makes more sense. But everyone who said the iPad idea was bad got called a child-hating Luddite. Oops!

[Ka hrnt]

16. Schools shouldn't be run like businesses BUT...

Those in charge should have SOME business sense--and most of them don't. I'm generalizing here, but it seems that the typical educational leader (or "leader", which may be more accurate...) is a sucker for "razzle dazzle", to quote the other poster here. Why bring in some students who need service credits when you can spend $120/hour for TeachLive? Why use a projector when you can use a (fraudulently researched) Whiteboard? Why use a simple and cheap teacher evaluation system when you can spend years trying to implement a moronic system like Marzano?

[Blue_Tires]

2. I said that whole scheme was a con from day one

Where are the DUers who defended this shit when it was first announced? (rhetorical question)

[Starry Messenger]

3. Same here.

I'm making a cup of tea and awaiting their arrival. I'm sure I'll be here awhile.

[Blue_Tires]

6. Fun with DU archives:

Textbooks coming to iPad.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RDKDfVwke4IJ:www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php%3Faz%3Dview_all%26address%3D389x7629147+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Tech Giants Take On Publishers for Control of Education
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1124696

All of LA's 640,000 schoolkids will get iPads by the end of 2014
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023356700

Students Find Ways To Hack School-Issued iPads Within A Week
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023751407

L.A. Unified takes back iPads as $1-billion plan hits hurdles
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023758405

School iPads to cost nearly $100 more each, revised budget shows
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014628006

Giving kids iPads won't solve the education challenge
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11247216

Teachers Barely Used iPads From Controversial $500 Million Contract In Los Angeles
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025556571

Reports: LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy To Resign
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014919595

[Starry Messenger]

7. Ah memories!

I forgot I posted about Deasy resigning in Oct...didn't get any traction that time either.

I guess the teacher-haters don't hang out in LBN. The Deasy fan club has been bashing us forever in GD.

[Blue_Tires]

8. I added a couple more

I was trying to find a couple of the long early threads I participated in, but no luck so far..

[Starry Messenger]

9. I know there were a couple that were real doozies.

I'm reading some stories I missed on the lead-up to the raid--evidently this iPad scheme wasn't just incompetent.

Looks like Deasy, Apple and Pearson were all in consultation on what the project would be before opening up the bid on the project.

Naturally Apple and Pearson had all the qualifications, since they helped create the plan. Nice.

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2014/08/25/17202/la-schools-cancel-ipad-contracts-after-kpcc-publis/

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Bluem, that was a prefect headline flow

now I understand the issue.
esp. like the Students Find Ways To Hack School-Issued iPads Within A Week bit.

[DemandsRedPill]

5. the end is near

"But he said there was no other way to pay for what he called a civil rights imperative — to provide low-income students equal access to technology in the nation's second-largest school system."

When it finally comes down to having someone in authority make a claim that not having free access to something as close to being an expensive toy as an Ipad is, you can be quite certain there are far more extensive problems in the school systems and in the general population than one is willing to accept.

Can you say 'Crony Capitalism'?
Who REALLY WAS the beneficiary of this madness?

And we are surprised that we have a totally dysfunctional government?

These toys at best are a distraction for most young minds yet it warrants wasting 1.3 billion in tax payer debt?

I feel confident that students who have these toys, if challenged academically against others who barely know what they are but do understand what real knowledge is and seek it out in places beyond 'pop culture passing as a learning tool' could perform no better and in many cases far worse.

Dog help us

[abelenkpe]

10. Is that what happened to the iPads my children's school briefly had?

The majority of the students at their school are from low income families. They were so happy to finally receive their iPads last year. With a couple of parents from the booster club and help from my son's teacher we had installed a free apps on their iPads and begun teaching animation to elementary students who likely never have that opportunity again. Those lessons helped reinforce math concepts in a fun way. The class was also learning how to use the Internet to research topics they were studying for writing homework. Then the school took the iPads back and we've been waiting for them to come back. Does this mean they'll never come back? The iPads never went home with kids. They were only for use in the classroom.
I don't understand why the school district had to Pay top dollar for them. You would think buying so many would merit a discount. When I worked in DC for a school there we were able to get computer equipment and software donated. Things we paid for were deeply discounted. This was twenty years ago though.
So I'm confused. Are people upset money actually went to purchase things that went directly to classroom? Cause that's truly novel in LAUSD classrooms. Mostly they've been stripped, stripped of teachers aides, cleaning supplies, school supplies, science classes, physical education teachers, counselors, nurses, heck the vice principal is only there half time. The teachers haven't recieved raises in forever due to budget cutbacks The district even tried turning over half
my kids elementary school campus to a charter school this year but thankfully that didn't happen due to significant pushback. So when the district is not handing out resources and money to private charter schools when does the money ever go to benefit the classroom, students or teachers directly?
Or are we just upset that they were given iPads vs a Microsoft product? Or some other lower cost tech? if they bought lower cost tech from a competitor instead of iPads would it not still be viewed as cronyism by some?
There are going to be a lot of disappointed kids if those iPads don't come back. I know the school has been planning to use them in a lot of different ways. We even had fundraisers last year to upgrade to Internet connection.

[Starry Messenger]

11. I can only speculate at this point.

I'm reading KPCC's coverage. I don't think anyone is upset that money went to help kids in the classroom--I follow LAUSD issues when I can and I know you guys have been plagued by cut-backs, slashed budgets and draconian teacher layoffs. ((hugs))

I hope the tech comes back to the kids, and with the support needed to make it successful for the whole community.

Part of the investigation, I gather, is the issue of the high cost. Like you, I think most expected that buying in large quantity should have resulted in discounts. Now part of the cost was also the Pearson software that the iPads were loaded with, so that could have resulted in some mark-up, but it is still a high cost.

The other issue, the one that has the FBI interested, is that apparently the former Superintendent Deasy had a conflict of interest with both Apple and Pearson executives, and reading KPCC's coverage and the internal emails, it seems like Deasy created the project to benefit both companies, while going through a sham bid process, which is big no-no with government contracts.

[abelenkpe]

12. Thanks for the link!

I'm going to read up on this after picking up the kiddos and bring it up at next weeks PTA meeting. Thanks again!

[Starry Messenger]

13. No problem!

Thank you for reading and keeping other parents informed!

[denbot]

15. Our District middle schoolers have them issued to them the last couple of years.

We are in the Los Angeles area, but not in the L.A.U.S.D. The kids can take them home, they have a few required reading books available, and some lesson plans/home work done electronically.

Grades, student presentations, and parent-teacher communications are available through the iPads.

Our students can provide their own, borrow one for the year, or buy one through the district.

The purpose is to integrate technology into the learning process, and it seems to work for the district, and kids.