The spokesman for Huntsville’s government schools told the Huntsville Times that the system is contemplating purchasing laptops for students.  Remember, this is the same school system that thinks our taxes need to be raised because they don’t have enough money.

Giving kids government issued laptops is a bad idea for any number of reasons.  Laptops aren’t rugged enough to stand up to a year (or more) of rough treatment from adolescents.  People tend to treat “free” things with less regard than something that they own.  Laptops also make an attractive target for thieves or for kids to sell themselves.  There are no such concerns with regular textbooks.  I wonder how long it would take for the kids to master using their government furnished wireless devices to cheat on a grand scale - much more so than with cell phones.  And just think of the costs of expanding the IT department to deal with copious technical problems, repairing/refurbishing the laptops regularly, and training personnel to properly manage and utilize the devices.

And back to the issue of Huntsville’s schools needing more of our hard earned money.  The latest data I could find placed total enrollment at approximately 23,000 students.  Their FY2008 budget shows that they will spend $341.3 million.  That equates to about $14,800 of spending per student.  The total revenue per student was slightly lower since the budget indicates a deficit.  To put that number into perspective, annual tuition at the area’s premier private school, Randolph School, ranges from $10,675 per year for K-3 to $13,185 per year for high school.  Now, to be fair the tuition at Randolph is augmented by an endowment and there are some additional fees that students may not have to pay at a government school.  Also, the government schools have to operate (and pay for) a bus network that the private school does not.  Still, how can the government schools credibly argue that they need more from taxpayers when their per pupil spending is already comparable to the best private school in the area?

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This entry was posted by Brian on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under Education, Huntsville. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.