Cobb County Appeals Laptop Ruling

In a previous post I commented on the Cobb County School Board plan to provide laptops to every high school student and middle school student. The $100+ million laptop program was to be paid for by a Special Purpose Location Option Sales Tax that I had voted for. My concerns were:

1. This was not part of the SPLOST explanation voters were given
2. The choice of Apple did not provide mainstream technology and applications to students
3. The predicted costs kept escalating

A judge eventually agreed with my #1 and told the county to cancel the program because voters were not completely informed on this as part of the SPLOST vote. The school system hired a private investigation firm to review the entire situation and process. While this report did not exactly agree with my #2 the findings were extremely significant and vindicated my #2.
"An investigation into the program said that the school system "deceived the public" in choosing [...] Apple as the company to supply it with laptop computers."

Well, it seems the Cobb County school system has money to burn because they have decided to appeal the judges ruling. This is despite significant public outcry against the program, the resignation of the school superintendent, and a damning review by the investigation firm the school system hired to review the laptop program. The school board canceled the program and yet the school board is still choosing to spend financial resources on an appeal.

The board should give it up and let go. There are many other educational needs that should be concentrated on and the money going to lawyers on this should be spent helping students.

Given the chance I will definitely vote against all incumbents on the school board and I will vote against the next SPLOST. We the citizens of Cobb County need to send a very strong message to our chosen representatives that deceiving us is unacceptable. Politicians thrive on power and money is power. By voting down the next SPLOST we send a very strong and painful message to politicians. In return they will try to scare us with end of the world scenarios if the SPLOST is not approved, hogwash I say to that.