A rally for "Repairs Not iPads" was held Tuesday to fight a $1 billion plan in the nation's second-largest school district to put an iPad in the hands of its 650,000 students.
Community members claims that LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy’s "proposal to spend the money on iPads is a vanity project that ignores the basic needs of students," according to a press release.
The tablets cost almost $700 apiece and are paid for by voter-approved bond money.
Former LAUSD Superintendent William J. Johnston and California Assemblyman Curt Hagman both believe that Deasy is misusing bond funds.
Johnston’s reasoning is that use of repair and construction bond money to fund the purchase of tablets for every student and teacher in the district is illegal.
Similarly, Hagman introduced Assembly Bill 1754 which aims to ban the use of school bond money for iPads.
Monica Garcia, an LAUSD board member, said that providing all LAUSD students and staff with iPads or laptop computers would not take away funding from essential programs.
"The iPad program is strictly an investment from our bond program, which is separate from our general fund," Garcia told NBC4.
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School district officials faced an embarrassing glitch when the first round of tablets went out last year.
Instead of solving math problems or doing English homework, as administrators envisioned, more than 300 Los Angeles Unified School District students promptly cracked the security settings and started tweeting, posting to Facebook and playing video games.
