Posted By: Parent of Two Okemos Children
Thank you, CommonSenseForOkemos, for this website and for your advocacy for fiscal responsibility and common sense regarding our children's education. I bought two computers in the last year, each for well under $1000 and loaded with more technology than my organization will ever use. Buying 550 "Desktop PCs" averaging $1283 is not necessary for the schools. Maybe a few science classrooms and labs would benefit from high end computers, but this price for an "average" computer is way out of line, and indicates to me that the other cost estimates are probably inflated as well. Can't the schools negotiate a price break for a purchase of this volume?
Moreover, the schools brag about how many out-of-district students they are bringing into our schools. Many of these school-of-choice parents are writing letters urging us to vote for the technology bond, when they themselves won't pay any of the technology costs because they don't live in the Okemos school district.
The Lansing State Journal, which almost never editorializes against millages, urged us to vote "No" on the Okemos technology millage last year. I urge everyone to read that editorial, from Sunday, April 30, 2006--it applies equally well to the latest wasteful bond proposal.