Last month we wrote a story about how an LA iPad initiative was backfiring due to students bypassing locks. This month sees that initiative suffering massive budget concerns.
The deal was made to distribute iPads to 47 different campuses throughout the city. It was originally thought to be a $30 million program, but apparently that cost is now much higher. LA Unified is reportedly paying $770 for each device, when it originally predicted it would pay $678.
Apparently there’s a spot of confusion around the distribution of the devices that’s leading to the change in cost. The iPads were meant to be avaialbe at a discount to $678 per device one the district had spent $400 million to buy 520,000 iPads. The problem? The district only planed to buy a fraction of that amount, with 31,000 iPads ordered for a ‘pilot test’.
Originally the budget came to $50 million, with $20.3 million of that devoted to the device purchases themselves. It’s obviously since gone over that.
The LA iPad initiative will continue, despite these issues. LA Unified hopes to reach the $400 million goal and obtain that discount for additional iPad cost, but it has a long way to go.
Source: Apple Insider