The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has officially announced that it has put an end to the $1.3 billion initiative that would have given an iPad to every student in the LAUSD system. The Los Angeles Times reports LAUSD Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines confirmed the district won’t be using “the original iPad contract” any longer.
LA Times, via MacRumors:
“We’re not going to use the original iPad contract anymore,” Cortines said Tuesday. “I think there have been too many innuendos, rumors, etc., and based on my reading of a great deal of material over Thanksgiving, I came to this conclusion.
“As CEO and steward of a billion-dollar operation, I have to make sure things are done properly so they are not questioned.”
The official statement comes one day after the FBI seized 20 boxes of LAUSD documents as part of an investigation into the district’s contract with Apple. The FBI is investigating the bidding process that lead to the $1.3 billion deal.
The FBI is looking at the relationship between Apple executives and former L.A. superintendent John Deasy, who resigned in October. While Deasy has maintained that no wrong doing was involved during the process, there has been speculation that the bidding process was changed in order to benefit both Apple and Pearson, the company set to provide content for the iPads.
Deasy’s ties to Apple executives were first discovered in August, at which time the contract between the LAUSD and Apple was suspended. However the district still planned to purchase millions of dollars worth of iPads up until the announcement this week.
A number of issues came to light following the initial rollout of iPads to students, who discovered they could workaround restrictions put on the device to access “banned” content. The LAUSD now plans to continue moving forward with the technology program, however they will now be giving students Chromebooks and other laptops.
