Parents balk at buying laptops in Palo Alto School District. (nes connection: up-to-date and usable education information from schools, government, business, research and professional organizations).Most parents in Palo Alto Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif., were upset after administrators at Jordan Middle School David Starr Jordan Middle School is a middle school in Palo Alto, California. Currently in attendance are approximately 1000 students from grades 6 through 8. The school is named after David Starr Jordan, who was the first president of Stanford University. asked them to buy their sixth graders $2,000 laptop computers A portable computer that has a flat LCD screen and usually weighs less than eight pounds. Often called just a "laptop," it uses batteries for mobile use and AC power for charging the batteries and desktop use. Today's high-end laptops provide all the capabilities of most desktop computers. . Parents launched an e-mail campaign and a media blitz blitz n. 1. a. A blitzkrieg. b. A heavy aerial bombardment. 2. An intense campaign: a media blitz focused on young voters. 3. in protest. The controversy started this fall when 300 parents received a letter from the principal asking that they buy laptops with wireless access as part of the school's new technology program. The purchase was said to be optional. In response to the parents' protest, the school has put the program on hold. The school is re-evaluating its program, says one staffer in the office of the Palo Alto Unified School District Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) is in Palo Alto, California. High schools
"An optional program is never really optional," said Steve Weinstein, a parent who started an e-mail campaign. "There are a lot of people who don't have $2,000 to spend, but they are going to be forced into it because it's the Palo Alto way: My kid might be disadvantaged if he's four steps behind, so I've go to do what is necessary." The basic protest centers on the cost. "They need to open their eyes that not everyone in Palo Alto is loaded," says Kathryn Varda, a mother with twins in the sixth grade. "There is no way I can afford to shell out $4,000 right now." She adds that parents knew a program was in place, but had assumed that the school would fund the purchase of the laptops. The school's request came out of a successful pilot program conducted last spring with 51 Jordan sixth graders. Students used borrowed laptops to take notes, do homework and access the Internet. Administrators noted that the quality of work had improved, making it sensible for all sixth graders to use laptops. CNN.com contributed to the reporting of this story Jean Marie Jean Marie may refer to:
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