Free Laptops Maybe Not The Best Option?

If you live in the Mount Vernon/Lisbon IA area you have probably heard of the One-to-One computer initiative that Lisbon School is implementing for grades 6 through 12. What does this project do? It simply gives a free Apple Macbook to every student in grades 6 to 12. Now you have to wonder if this is a joke, a free laptop? Surely there are better uses for that money, right? I talked to several of my friends who go to Lisbon (That would be about, two), and they all said that even though they thought there was much better uses dollar for dollar, they wouldn't complain because of the free laptop. Didn't anyone consider the laptop's would probably be more of a distraction then a learning tool?

When I was younger, being a homeschooler, I always thought that computer labs were neat. The school lets you do stuff on a computer? Cool! But apparently Lisbon wanted to go farther. Why in the world would Lisbon want this? Maybe a big reason would be that over the last couple years Lisbon Public School District has made a big fuss about all the students open enrolling into a different district. If a kid has a choice between a better education and a free laptop, which do you think they are going to choose? And of course, Mount Vernon isn't very far behind, although for the 2010-2011 year only 8th graders will receive laptops. Now I might be wrong, the district supplied laptops might be a great thing. Or it might not. The 4 year lease is $140,000 a year. Which makes you think, 140k a year? You can buy a lot of pencils with that much money.