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Education Security

Chicago Public Schools Lost Over $20 Million In Electronics In One Year, Report Says (cbsnews.com) 163

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Millions of dollars have gone down the drain right when the Chicago Public Schools face a looming budget deficit -- as a brand-new CPS Inspector General report revealed the district lost thousands of computers and devices in a school year. In all, more than $20 million were lost -- as about students failed to return 77,505 laptops and other electronic devices within a year. This is even though the district spends millions to track such devices. The underlying concern is that taxpayer dollars will be used to replace them.
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Chicago Public Schools Lost Over $20 Million In Electronics In One Year, Report Says More

Chicago Public Schools Lost Over $20 Million In Electronics In One Year, Report Says

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  • good luck billing students on free and reduced lunch or even makeing them put an deposit down

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ThurstonMoore ( 605470 )

      In my school district everyone receives free lunch as it should be.

      • Re:good luck billing students on free and reduced (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @01:24PM (#64150223)

        In my school district everyone receives free lunch as it should be.

        And I agree, but that's a tangent and not relative to his point. He's referring to students who can't afford school meals as it is. They have no money so you're not going to get deposits or fines for lost technology from them.

        Honestly, this is a problem that is hard - potentially impossible - to fix. Kids are prone to lose things (and if not lose them, break them), but you can't force a piece of technology on them and then expect payment if its damaged.

        Realistically it probably would be more efficient to keep the devices at school for use there, and tailor homework to offline/paper work (at least until grade 6 or 7). Or just eat the cost of the lost/damaged technology and stop complaining about it as its just a reality of sending computers home with kids.

        • Re:good luck billing students on free and reduced (Score:4, Insightful)

          by sarren1901 ( 5415506 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @01:36PM (#64150267)

          Teaching kids their lessons doesn't require them have a computer for every little thing. Pencil, paper and a teacher with a lesson plan are all that are needed. You don't need everything to be doable on a computer. I'm sure schools are paying for all this online coursework on top of paying for all these laptops. Sounds like a wonderful hustle for big tech without having any real returns on value.

          Computer technology can be taught with a computer lab on campus. Pretty simple and it will prepare them for today just fine. I could even see laptops be issued to students if, and only if, they are in a computer related class such as coding (since that's the big push these days) but beyond that, not so much.

          • While I agree with you, I think you are overlooking one specific use-case, the 'Learn / School from Home' that was driven by COVID.

            When my 13 y o grandson showed up at my door two years ago for six months, he had his own notebook for that. Had he not owned one, he would have been given one by his school.

            • The pandemic is definitely a good "specific" use-case but that's the outlier and not the norm.

              Considering all that I read regarding the quality of school work during the pandemic, sending them home with books and a lesson plan and then redoing the entire school year would of been the best outcome, since we still haven't gotten back to pre-pandemic quality of schooling.

              No perfect solution to that, but under "normal" circumstances, my comment still stands. Heck, in the late 80s I got chicken pox and couldn't

              • The 'local' school systems in this area (south NJ, DE, PA) continue to use the remote schooling for various weather related school closing days. The kids don't like this, it does away with snow (and now severe wind and rain storms like what we've been getting the past couple of weeks) days. We had record breaking hot days in September, and they used it then too, as most school buildings don't have AC.

                My grandson kept getting distracted by the other stuff on his notebook and smartphone. It became obvious lat
              • Some schools did deliver photocopied study materials to children at their homes during the COVID-19 closures, like the old Isaac Pitman correspondence courses of the mid 1800s. Apparently, they outperformed those who tried to put resources online.
          • This is about 10 years old but not much has fundamentally changed since then: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789... [doi.org] Essentially, the more kids use computers at school for studying, the poorer the academic outcomes, for a variety of reasons.

            The people who procure learning resources for schools really should pay heed & not fall for EdTech companies' PR & marketing. If you want good quality education, invest in teachers, librarians, school buildings, & books, lots & lots of books.

      • Why should students get free lunches? "as it should be"??? Why?

        I can tell you why not. Most people, and I do mean most, have the money to feed their families. But, if given the choice, people will use the free option. Yes, there are poorer areas, there are also richer areas. To say everyone should have the same services is silly. Let a school district decide, not a monolithic policy.

        • The bigger hassle about free lunches is...allergies. Given the widespread allergies today could you find a non allergic lunch to feed them that they would eate? My wife has a lot of food sensitivities and can eat beef, lamb, and some ocean fish. Occasionally potatoes,she can eat rice and many vegetables. Few kids would eat a meal of meat and vegetables. Many kids don't learn how to use utensils. I can say this for certain because I ended up in a situation where I was eating with many, many, many people
          • There are several countries that have free lunches at state-run schools. They work well & are good for a variety of reasons, including ensuring every child has a healthy lunch, it's more efficient than kids bringing their own lunches in or leaving to get takeaway food, & the children all sit & eat together, making mealtimes an enjoyable, social activity. Free school meals are about more than just feeding children from food insecure families.

  • I'm a teacher at a Title 1 School (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:26PM (#64149973)

    90% of students are good with computers, but even the best teenagers are going to break or lose a computer they carry around with them every day. 10% of students will do shit like throw them around the room or try to pry off the case because they're bored.

    When they leave the district, some shit happens to one of their parents and they're suddenly moved to a new tone to live with grandma. Returning their computer is not a top priority, and it's not like the repo man will come after them.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      Computers in 2020's, Textbooks in 1980's

      Nothing has really changed. Just the dollar values are substantially higher now.

      If the school districts really want this junk back, they should be enable asset tracking by having them de-facto connected to the internet by 5G. Good luck justifying the $100/mo per computer the Wireless companies want for that.

      Otherwise the cheaper option is to simply give the parents a bill at the end of the year to replace computers not returned intact. Most of them aren't going to pay

      • Just the dollar values are substantially higher now.

        Are they though? A chrome is $200, which doesn't buy a whole lot of textbooks.

        This says "The average math textbook for K-12 costs around $57.34 for elementary school students, $72.32 for middle school, and $86.14 for high school." Similar for reading, science, and social studies.

        https://wordsrated.com/k-12-te... [wordsrated.com]

        So I think part of the impact of this headline is that people think of 'computers' as expensive. But they sure aren't what they were.

        • Are they though? A chrome is $200, which doesn't buy a whole lot of textbooks.

          Are the ones they're handing students that price? My nieces bring home Chromebooks to do work on, though its been a while since I've looked at them, but as I recall they were a bit of a tougher built model. I'd imagine that the lifespan of your super cheap Chromebooks in the hands of a preteen would be a few months or less.

          Your average cheapo laptop/Chromebook just isn't designed to be used daily, much less by someone who doesn't understand how to take care of them.

          • True, I price-checked the textbooks without similarly checking what schools really pay for chromebooks.

        • Re:I'm a teacher at a Title 1 School (Score:5, Insightful)

          by sarren1901 ( 5415506 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @01:41PM (#64150289)

          That $200 doesn't include the software coursework that needs to be bought per computer though. Probably at least double the cost and will likely be renewed each and every year, despite the subject matter not changing at all. It's a lot harder to break the book and you wouldn't need to renew the book for every additional school year since it's a physical thing that works without an always on server that cost a subscription cost.

          Every student being given a laptop loaded with coursework software is a spectacular hustle for the tech companies and it's not necessary for learning and could even be an added distraction, though I think everyone having a cellphone has that attention span covered at this point.

        • My kid broke her chromebook (the screen.) I was required to pay 450 for her to get a new one (and the school gets to keep the old one).

          The alternative was that they gave her a loaner in school that she leaves at school. Since most of the homework and agendas are on the chromebook, her grades tanked while I passively protested the fee by doing nothing.

          Mind you, this is for 5th grade, and she was using the same chromebook they gave her 2 years ago. Honestly, she did better with it than I have ever done with a

        • It depends how the book procurement & distribution works. Yes, it's not uncommon for commercial publishers to overcharge & keep printing new editions so that everyone has to buy the updated books rather than get their older siblings' &/or cousins' old books for free. Nothing in the books actually changes but they move pages & sections around enough so that it becomes unworkable to use old books in the classroom.

          In contrast, there are systems where the national departments of education buy

    • 90% of students are good with computers, but even the best teenagers are going to break or lose a computer they carry around with them every day. 10% of students will do shit like throw them around the room or try to pry off the case because they're bored.

      Maybe the answer to that kind of behavior, is taking their personal smartphone and pry off the case. You know, because boredom.

      With damn near every student addicted to a smartphone, they are taught from a very young age what The Precious looks like from a hardware standpoint. If they abuse other people's hardware, then that's more a problem of disrespect, because they would absolutely lose their fucking mind if someone did that to their Precious.

    • In Canada, for example, there are no laptops to carry around. They still use textbox. What is wrong with textbooks, anyway? Why do they need to carry laptops around?

      • Half the point in them having a computer is learning to use one. Though I'll admit, they probably can avoid such things until 6th or 7th grade. You certainly don't need a computer to learn to read or to do basic math.

      • nothing is wrong with textbooks, just this is the 21st century and some elected officials decided all students should have access to school laptops because .... so, they issue the things even though the texctbooks work perfectly fine. Sure, at some point it is needful that students become used to using laptops because, they may be going on to Uni and such, but, for the most part they could get along with textbooks easily until 7th/8th grade. IMHO.

    • Re:I'm a teacher at a Title 1 School (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rogoshen1 ( 2922505 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @01:28PM (#64150243)

      >90% of students are good with computers
      lol, not the kids at the schools with the bulk of these losses. That just sounds like progressive delusions. Throwing money and technology at inner city kids who are statistically unlikely to finish 6th grade won't magically help them breach the 'digital divide'

      It's not a lack of internet access, or access to a computer at home that is the source of the deficiency.

  • Modern teaching. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:27PM (#64149975)

    There was nothing wrong with textbooks and chalkboards. Not for grade school. You give a kid a textbook, it probably comes back at the end of the year, because nobody wants it when they're done with it. Give a kid a laptop what the fuck did you think was going to happen? Particularly in non-affluent districts...even if they don't want a general purpose computing device in their homes... somebody with money to trade does.

    My gen-X is showing... but except for having dragged teachers along for the ride by "modernizing" something that wasn't broken, you haven't achieved anything.

    • There was nothing wrong with textbooks and chalkboards. Not for grade school. You give a kid a textbook, it probably comes back at the end of the year, because nobody wants it when they're done with it. Give a kid a laptop what the fuck did you think was going to happen? Particularly in non-affluent districts...even if they don't want a general purpose computing device in their homes... somebody with money to trade does.

      My gen-X is showing... but except for having dragged teachers along for the ride by "modernizing" something that wasn't broken, you haven't achieved anything.

      What's worse the electronic gadgetry is a distraction that is actively impeding learning rather than improving outcomes for students.

      • I believe it was Socrates who once said that the best classroom is a log with a student on one end and a teacher on the other... maybe it was Plato, or Aristotle, or some other person and I don't recall because it was an awful long time ago and I am getting old... but at the end of the day, the sentiment stands, it is less about the technology and more about the instructor.

    • Yeah I'm not really sure why sending computers home made more sense to these people than just opening up a computer lab for kids to use.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by unrtst ( 777550 )

        HELL YEAH! THIS!
        If they can afford to give every kid a laptop computer, they could have outfitted every classroom with fixed computers for the same or less money.
        Homework? Don't tie it to the computer. Make it so they're doing all that in class. If needed, give them cheap ass tablets to hold books. And by "give" I mean just give it to them to keep. That would take care of reading and studying at home, and computers available in every classroom (something I was told in the early 80's would happen any day now

        • Homework? Don't tie it to the computer.

          But then the teachers will actually have to review the homework instead of letting the computer do it...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by CQDX ( 2720013 )

          I hate, hate, hate, that both my boys are required to use computers for school work. All they do is find time wasting activities like YouTube. An no, I can't blacklist YouTube because all the teachers make watching educational videos on YouTube a requirement for various assignments. Teachers have gotten lazy and as a result so have our kids.

          • "Teachers have gotten lazy and as a result so have our kids." - I was a high school computer science teacher for 18 years so implementing tech in the classroom for me was easy given my previous IT background. The problem I saw was that teachers were mandated to use technology but given no, or very poor, direction as to what that meant or how to implement it. My district implemented a very poor LMS ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ) that was difficult to use and very buggy which just made the situation wo

            • this! I was required to teach (for my BS in Physics) one class at the 4th grade level I went to the grammar school and talked with the teachers and they were 100% about both me teaching them about physics so they could better teach their students and me helping them work with the technology they were being required to use, with, of course, no training even offered. Sure, there are crappy teachers just like there are crappy engineers,, but for the most part, the one's I have known have been seriously intere
        • Back when I was a lab tech/grad assistant in physics, we started building out labs with computers... each semester the kids got smarter and smarter about stealing stuff from the computers... We put in camera's so we could see who was stealing. turns out that the Dean didn't want to know who was stealing because he felt it would make him look racist (90% of the thefts were the Asian students). So we kept trying to lock things down more and more. Finally we hit upon only using the crappiest of systems in the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by suutar ( 1860506 )

        at a guess, there were more kids involved than would fit in a reasonably sized computer lab, and they didn't have room for the size lab that would work.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by skam240 ( 789197 )

          20 million dollars buys a lot of computers and creates a lot of space. Instead they flushed it down the toilet.

      • From what I've seen, the laptop computers are absolute crap from a learning standpoint. "Learning modules" are used as half-assed substitutes for textbooks. The "modules" are confusing to access or navigate. They tend to require a fast, always-on Internet connection to do anything at all (in one case, my kid was unable to even *edit* an already-opened document when the Internet went down). They often have spellcheck enabled by default, which is not a good idea if you're trying to learn to spell. And, a

        • This was a problem when I was a teacher as well (I was a high school computer science teacher for 18 years). I developed a very easy solution to this. I used Dropbox and within my shared drive I created a folder for each of my students that was shared on their laptops using Dropbox. Within each student folder were "Inbox", "Outbox", and "Graded" sub-folders. I developed each assignment as an interactive PDF and wrote custom software that would "pass out" homework assignments to their individual Inbox folder

    • Re:Modern teaching. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:45PM (#64150057) Homepage
      It's funny to me that teachers don't want phones in class, but every one of my kids' teachers puts all their assignments in google classroom, so they need a device 100% of the time to do all their assignments. Definitely I'd prefer they went back to paper and pencil, but you and I are just swimming against the current.
      • Who the hell uses pencil and paper in the real world? School devices are locked down, you cant randomly text people or get on IG or snapchat. What next, you want kids to walk to school in a chicago winter like its 1899?
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Why the hate for paper and pencil? Those folks who walked to school in the winter in 1899 built the underpinnings of the world you live in. Most of the scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and other STEM folks that drove (and are still driving) the modern era were educated in grade school using... paper, pencil, textbooks, and chalkboards. Seems to have worked out well for them.

          If you think the modern system and the electronic tools produce "better" graduates, sure - we can discuss that.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by RobinH ( 124750 )
          LOL, I had a co-op student a couple years ago. We were discussing an idea and were about to sketch something up, and he grabs his phone and tries to open this sketching app, and it delays for a few seconds, and then wants him to update, and he has to click a couple buttons to start a new sketch, and then when he starts to draw on it, it's not reacting right... I just smile, grab a piece of paper and a pencil and start sketching, and he put his phone away.
    • You gone full Boomer. You never go full Boomer...

      How's the top comment here pointed out a lot of the missing laptops are probably from stuff like the kid being sent off to live with Grandma with the implication that abuse is going on.

      In scenarios like that which are worryingly common nobody's got returning a laptop at the top of their to-do list.

      As for the value of the laptops on the secondary market I mean I guess technically yeah but it's like 20 maybe 50 bucks. If a kid is so poor that they're

  • No surprise (Score:3)

    by gosso920 ( 6330142 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:31PM (#64149985)
    The students were enrolled in the Fagin School of Artful Dodging.

  • Context (Score:3)

    by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:34PM (#64149997)
    Is that a lot? Maybe. How many (paper) textbooks age out in a given year and at what cost? The Chicago Public School system serves 330,000 students, so $20M is about $60 per student. It's not nothing. But if you figure a chromebook costs $200 and is hoped to last 3 years, that's about $65 / year of depreciation in the best case.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Ah, but 20 million is a big number. If I lost $20 million I would be very upset. I would be even more upset about someone stealing $20 million from me. I would be *especially* upset if some morally bankrupt gang kid stole $20 million from me. But not nearly as upset as I would be if the government took my $20 million and just let that gang kid steal it.

      So the Chicago Public School system losing $20 million to what the comments assure me are gang bangers makes me very very mad so I will read all the comments

    • Re:Context (Score:5, Insightful)

      by radarskiy ( 2874255 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @03:23PM (#64150579)

      "But if you figure a chromebook costs $200"

      $20 million over 77,505 devices is $258, so your estimate is pretty good. These are not high end devices.

      Also, 330,000 students/77,505 devices is roughly one missing device per four students. That's also about the depreciation rate you estimate and the refresh rate for any reasonable corporation.

      So basically someone is reclassifying their depreciation as shrinkage in a way they don't really have to do anything about. They get to pocket the costs of disposing of the electronics waste and get to complain about the "urbans".

      Let's hear it for another round of "Big Number of Small Number".

  • Phraseology (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

    "Lost", "failed to return".

    Have you considered not using these idiotic euphemisms and just call it what it is. Stealing.

    Heck, they even tell you they're trying to track the devices, because they obviously know they're being stolen.

    • The devices were taken with permission. What's in dispute is the terms of return, which is a civil matter.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        I asked for keys to your car as a part of a purchase agreement for a test drive. You give them to me. I take the car for a spin and never come back.

        Did I steal your car, or do we have a dispute on the terms of return?

        If your answer is that I didn't steal your car, your jurisdiction is fucking insane, and needs to be purged of its current legislators and new ones put in to make sane laws.

  • "The underlying concern is that taxpayer dollars will be used to replace them."

    Well, yeah. What else are they gonna do, have a bake sale?

    • Well, yeah. What else are they gonna do, have a bake sale?

      Hmm....my school used to have bake sales, worked out nicely.

      But this is Chicago...guessing that won't work there.

      I think the simple thing is... to NOT make the same mistake again.

      No computers for take home...go back to using books, and write on paper/notebooks.

      They've already shown they can deal with "nice things", so, don't waste taxpayer money on that again.

      • I was being facetious. Bake sales work to reduce the cost of cheer uniforms and football equipment, but not electronics.

        I wonder what they thought would happen if they gave a whole slew of laptops to kids to take home. I wonder what percentage immediately went to pawn shops.

        The problem I see with going back to paper and pen is that I think (not certain) that most classes are remote.

  • Wasted too much money on nice computers. (Score:5, Informative)

    by rykin ( 836525 ) on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:39PM (#64150029)
    We had this issue several years ago. My school system leased high end laptops that were valued at $1500 each. They handed one of these to every student, and they had more than 100k students in the system. The assumption was that the failure rate, or rate of loss would be less than 10%. Turns out, the real number was over %60, and the getting families to pay for lost or damaged laptops (as they agreed to in a student contract) was not enforceable. After the lease was up for the original laptops, the school switched over to cheap Chromebooks and has used them ever since.

    • Nice computers should stay in the lab (an aging concept in today's world, but still...) and cheap things like chromebooks should be used for lessons.

      100% agree.

      However, when it comes time to decommission the damn things, for the love of all that's good in the world, have the decency to un-enroll them from the school's org policy before putting them up for auction.

      Even shitty used, beat up, and graphiti festooned cheap chromebooks have value in the 2nd hand market, but ONLY when people buying them can actual

      • At the Uni I went to, they would simply throw them away. I would dumpster dive, pull them out, recert them and then sell them on eBay. Once I had a teacher from Georgia who wanted to set up a lap in her classroom, so I shipped her the computers and printer for free along with a doc I created to show her how to hook everything up, I had already set up the systems to the network so all she needed to do was hook everything up and plug everything in. Later, I was an IT guy at a different Uni, and they were goi
  • How is that relevant? You're poor, so you can steal with no accountability? Of course losses will happen, but 11% is not a statistical outlier, it's not something you ignore, and I would say 5% is the typical tolerance, BUT, that includes loss, destruction, repairs and upkeep.

    How are these devices being handed out? What tracking information is being attached, and collected, that is stable and not affected by "economic disadvantage"? Are parents having to "co-sign" for the devices, and is the record b

    • the cops & courts have bigger things to deal with then an missing laptop student by student.
      Also you need to prove that the school did not lose track of it in there own tracking system? that they seem to be not useing. So the student can say I truned it into the school so maybe someone at the school did not mark it the right way or it's setting in an box in some storage room at the school.

      • That's a valid argument that a student could say "I turned it in, you lost it.", but in that case there should be an electronic record, such an email, and a paper record like a receipt listing it as received.

        The cops certainly have better things to do, but theft is theft, and if people are mindlessly stealing expensive items, hold them accountable. If the option is a court record you know you can't fight, or a free "Turn it, 1 of 3 times", then it's on you, not them.

        Again, there should be email verific

        • Have you ever had something stolen (like a laptop) and made a police report? You actually think the cops are "looking" for your stolen property? Give me a break. Literally the only reason to report theft of most property is to get insurance money for it or if it's a car or gun, to get released from any liability of the property misuse. You typically are never going to see your property ever again. In case of the car, you probably should pray you never get it back because insurance probably won't make the ca

          • The point of calling the police is more of a tactic to hold the kids responsible. I know they won't likely get the notebooks or tablets back, but if you were given something from the school, and you lost it and didn't come forwards or report it stolen, then serves you right to face the law.

            • But let's be real here. You are suggesting the school system take 70% of parents to court over failure to return the laptops? Our system doesn't remotely have those resources and it's quite literally not worth the effort it would take.

              • Well, if they're not going to be serious, then give the technology away and deal with the massive costs of doing that. If they're not doing to fight to defend getting the technology back, they can't claim they care about it. I agree it would be taxing, involved and probably come out as a loss, but, if they don't, they send the wrong signal that theft is okay.
        • a few years back, the business i work for gave me a company cell phone. After a couple of years, my job changed and I no longer needed it, so I asked to whom I should turn it in. I was told where I should go and all, then, when I got there, no one was willing to sign for it. So, I didn't turn it in and I contacted my boss, told her about the situation and that no one was willing to sign for it. She replied, just turn the thing in! I said, negative, I had had to sign for it when I got it and in now way was I

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kackle ( 910159 )

      How is that relevant? You're poor, so you can steal with no accountability?

      Yes (especially in Chicago). If you're big enough voting base, then you can do what you want, "majority rules" and all of that. Laptops aside, breakfasts and lunches are now free for all students in the CPS. (It used to be dinners, and on Saturdays, too, but I can find that information anymore.) That 72% "votes" and bada-bing, free stuff (no different than the college loans the feds are discharging for all those "poor", overburdened, college students). And if you think that Chicago is not asking for t

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • My daughters have always been responsible enough to not pointlessly break or steal stuff from others. That doesn't mean, nothing breaks, but you have to allow a various IPK levels. I wouldn't give a grade 2 student the same computer I'd lend to a grade 8 student. If your kid can't be trusted to handle school equipment, that's another argument, and one that has to be balanced between real behaviour issues (not liberalized feeling based self-assessments), and maturity.
    • If you're poor, you likely live someplace where you will be beaten and robbed fairly regularly, and the police are much too busy with more serious crimes to even file a report. No, poverty never excuses stealing or any other crime. But law is difficult to enforce in a lawless society.
      • If the property got stolen, report it stolen to the school. If the law enforcement is basically non-existent, and it's some kind of purge style existence, then don't give the technology out in the first place. Make the kids use the technology in school, and never let it leave.

        That how my younger daughter's class handles the technology, and well it does turn into a pain sometimes, at least the school isn't having mass theft.

        When it comes to remote learning, either you provide the computer, or get your

        • I have mixed feelings on this one.

          On one hand, giving stuff to disadvantaged kids at taxpayer expense leads to a lot of it being stolen.

          But not doing so leads to a lot of those kids remaining disadvantaged.

          As a victim of multiple violent crimes, and living only about a mile from the limits of a city nearly as dangerous as Chicago, my preference would be to work toward more and better law enforcement, including but not necessarily limited to community-based policing.

          Safety should be the FIRST priority of any

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Incorrect.

          Successful people almost by definition have learned better ways to earn a couple hundred bucks than to hit someone over the head and steal it.

          Although, if your unstated but presumably implied point is that wealthy areas have crime too, that is true, but in the same sense that diarrhea contains more pathogens than tap water. The latter may not be safe in any absolute sense, but, assuming you don't live in Flint, Michigan, there's still no question which one is safer to drink.

          I live in an "in betwe

    • time.

      Yes. There is no accountability at all. Kid punches through screen? Hand them another one. Kid throws device out of 3rd story window? Hand them another one.

      We're 100% free lunch most of the kids are poor, from shitty areas and broken homes. Their parents are often worse than they are.

      Treating kids like this is a huge disservice. This is not how the real world works at all.

    • It seems like people are assuming that the kid assigned the device is just not returning it. It's more likely that the devices are being stolen in the lunch room or on the bus. Who's responsible for preventing that? The parent of the kid who signed it out? I think not.

  • This is a public service. They are helping to bridge the digital divide. Letting stuff get stolen requires much less red tape than doling it out officially.

  • Take the money then cry and whine about not wanting to give it back ever until government gives in - while screwing the taxpayer.

  • 77000 devices lost ...this is out of 340,000 students or about 22% of the students losing devices.

    I'd be curious what % very large corporations expect for a loss rate? (and let's not count 'total employees' but only the staff actually given laptops, etc - sales, management, some customer service work-from-homes) ...and then let's recognize that a lot of these devices are being given to ELEMENTARY AGE school kids as young as K and 1st grade (because the $400/hour educational computing consultant who's the m

  • Wasn't this the type of thing that the OLPC-XO project was supposed to address, a ~$99 computing device for educational use by school age kids? I know the original intent was for kids in impoverished countries, but no reason we couldn't make it a goal for use in USA public schools. ASUS and others are close with the $200 Chromebooks. I know people like to knock the chromebooks, but they are not intended to be high performance machines, nor should most coursework require much power - maybe up GPU capability
  • So, equipment comes in, the tracking software automagically isn't used, and a bunch of stuff turns up. I'm guessing that while some is students, a lot is probably opportunistic staff grabbing boxes.

  • Some quick math here:

    Assuming it's all laptops, if $20m was lost, and it was 77,505 Laptops, that's an average of $258.05 per lost laptop. That's about the price of a decent Chromebook with licensing.

    According to public records, Chicago Public Schools has about 330,000 students. That's a 23.5% loss rate, if each student has 1 laptop. That's not good.

    ---Switching hats to give my opinion---

    The 1:1 Laptop idea has it's pros and cons.

    The biggest pro is that teachers can use the technology to reach students in t

  • Thinking that a student will take care of laptops worth hundreds of dollars is equivalent to thinking that kids won't write in textbooks either. Some of it is upbringing and some of it is just bad behavior.

  • From Wikipedia there were 340,658 students from 2020â"21. That's roughly 1 in 4.5 devices assuming one device per student and a cost of ~$250/device.

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