One of the most interesting things for me in this latest political cycle has been how the GOP's failures have happened at all levels of government. The systemic failures we see in Washington all go back to the state parties too.
In Kentucky, the problem arises from a math aid program that the state will pay up to 2 million dollars for. The program's cost is so high that it would cost approximately $300,000 for 30 students. The reason given is that the computer hardware and furniture must be purchased with the software.
Short and sweet: There is NO way that this computer software or hardware should cost this much. Couple that with disputed effectiveness from possibly rigged tests and the political connections of the I Can Learn company that provides this hardware and software, and I think we've got the makings of a scandal here.
Here's a link to the article in the Lexington Herald-Leader.
http://www.kentucky.com/...
First, a little about me to explain where I get most of my information. I work as a contractor for the Fairfax County Public Schools at their call center. We handle technical support for one of the largest school systems in the country. I've been into computers since the early eighties.
One of the best things about the computer revolution is that while technology has only gotten better, prices have trended downwards the entire time.
To think that ANY software/hardware combination would have to cost $10,000 per student is ridiculous. In addition, this software is of dubious effectiveness. From the article:
According to an investigation by the Fort Worth Star Telegram in Texas last year, the Fort Worth school district spent $15 million to install the program with widely varying results. In 2004, ninth-graders using I Can Learn had slightly higher test scores than those using traditional methods, but seventh-graders using the program had lower scores than other students.
One of the researchers who praised the program was also found to be on the company's payroll. That study, by researcher Peggy Kirby, is still listed on the I Can Learn Web site.
If this program has no proven effectiveness, why is it being used?
The I Can Learn program, created by a private New Orleans company, has made headlines both for its disputed effectiveness and for its political connections, which have brought it millions of dollars in federal earmarks. It is also very expensive, costing about $300,000 for every 30 students.
State legislators learned about I Can Learn through Hunter Bates, a lobbyist in Washington and Louisville who is the former chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, and was briefly Gov. Ernie Fletcher's running mate.
Oh! So it's that kind of thing. I might have thought as much. See, the hardware for this is ridiculously expensive. In the Fairfax County Schools, we have alot of computers. Most of them we buy from Dell. If we need a computer to have "only our software" on it, we can do that. You format a hard drive and re-install your operating system and you've got a pristine environment to install whatever software you want. Unless their software requires specific hardware (which would be different than the software incompatibility that I Can Learn uses to explain why states must buy their hardware as well) or uses an operating system other than windows, it is difficult to believe that I Can Learn's software requires their hardware.
If so, then it would seem commodity PC hardware would suffice. Since we have a $10,000 per student cost for this hardware/software combination, let's see what that would buy us in commodity hardware. Buying a personal computer, you could get a laptop or a desktop. Looking at the company's website you can see a page showing a young kid using their software. It appears to be running on a desktop computer. The monitor is a CRT which is black in color and the mouse appears to be black as well.
Well that black monitor with silver lettering in the center? Almost certainly a Dell. The mouse as well. Dell does a great deal of educational business. The computer I'm working on and many in the county are Dells. Most important in that is realizing how inexpensive Dell's PCs are, especially the desktops. Even some of their most expensive PCs are little over $2000.
At a per-student cost of $10,000 that makes the licensing price for this software a whopping $8,000 per license. There is no software I have ever heard of that has such a monumental cost. Looking at CDW, one of the largest resellers of software (especially to government) I see that the MOST expensive educational software they offer is $1,701.99.
So what I Can Learn would have state governments believe is that tehy can provide a software hardware combination that is so expensive it costs more than double what the most expensive software and hardware I could find. I'm sure if I searched harder I might be able to find something, but it'd be an outlier. Really, over $1,700 for any educational software is a bit of an outlier.
The worst part from this article is that another program which has demonstrable effects and is sold for $35,000 per site didn't get used. Because one company had political connections its questionable software got used instead of a better (and cheaper) alternative.
So cronyism strikes again. As usual, people who can't defend themselves are the real victims. The taxpayers of Kentucky see their money wasted, and the schoolchildren of Kentucky are robbed of funds that could go to proven effective teaching tools, instead of paying off political buddies.