An iPod For Every Kid In Michigan 333
mikesd81 writes "Over at C|Net there is an article about Michigan spending $38 million to distribute an iPod to every kid, for learning purposes. From the article: 'On Thursday, House Democrats delivered a spending bill that includes the idea of putting $38 million worth of public funds toward outfitting every student with a digital music player.' The plan included measures to tax soda and satellite TV services to pay for it, among other things, to raise funds. If you recall, Duke University tried something like this with mixed results. How financially strained will Michigan residents feel about paying higher taxes to buy someone else's kid an iPod?"
really? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Take notes.
Read their textbooks.
Email the teacher (my kids do this one a lot)
Actually pay attention.
I see this as giving the kids a device they won't use for the purpose intended (for the most part anyway), and as just another silly idea from the Ivory Tower folks. This won't save one ream of paper IMHO. Schools burn through paper like you wouldn't believe.
Re:really? (Score:5, Insightful)
The only thing the kids are going to learn is that the government really does waste their parents' tax money on cool stuff.
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Michigan has suffered from a drought of jobs in the last couple decades. They have a high tax rate with a populace that is Union friendly. This means that to outsi
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Yeah, but I think that shock and sentiment is working the wrong way. Given the general state of the State, as well as the schools, and the relative uselessness (especially given costs) of iPods in education, this just comes off as mind-blowingly idiotic more than anything forward-thinking, especially when the gov't has been putting forth cuts and finagling tax hikes claiming poverty.
I could even see buying eBooks or so
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Ahead,
Stay
Ahead,
Be
In
Class.
Look up Howard Scott Warshall's book "Conquering College." It's all you need to survive college and high school.
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You couldn't outfit every classroom with this for that money yet though.
But that's really a strawman anyway. It's not an either-or situation: distribute iPods or not have anything the kids can take home. One of my H.S. teachers tape recorded his lectures on cassette tape. You could record the lectures and put them online to download and let kids listen to it on their computers at home, or on their own iPods. If someone is really fina
Re:really? (Score:4, Insightful)
Mmmm...I'm guessing you never went to school so you don't know how it works.
Umm.. (Score:5, Insightful)
You have got to be kidding.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Frankly, I'm saddened by it. We used to have some of the best roads in the nation, and now I can't drive to work without wondering when my suspension is going to fail. It's not even a matter of avoiding the potholes, you actually have to avoid entire roads. Now you're telling me every little bastard in school is going to get an ipod? What about my nephew, who attends a private charter school? We pay property taxes, even though he doesn't attend public schools, and now you're going to tell me I have to foot the bill for this?
I only wish Granholm hadn't been the lesser of two evils this prior election. On the bright side, however, she's done a great job turning the strengths of our states into our weaknesses, while also driving businesses (Lifesavers, Johnson Controls, numerous others) out of the area. What's next?
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Local-only property taxes.
State-only sales taxes.
Local and state income taxes.
I don't live in Michigan, so I don't know if this would work, but here is my idea.
Implementing local sales taxes might create problems since the system is not set up to deal with that. However, what they can do is, if not already, create additional state sales tax rates.
Certain businesses would have a higher sales tax rate depending on the type of business.
Perhaps superstores (like Wal-Mart) be
Re:You have got to be kidding.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Implementing local sales taxes might create problems since the system is not set up to deal with that. However, what they can do is, if not already, create additional state sales tax rates.
Certain businesses would have a higher sales tax rate depending on the type of business.
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What about my nephew, who attends a private charter school? We pay property taxes, even though he doesn't attend public schools, and now you're going to tell me I have to foot the bill for this?
Sorry, buddy, but I don't have kids and I happily pay my property taxes. Even if I never plan on burdening the public school system, the products of these schools will be my caretakers when I'm elderly and my coworkers in my near future. It's to everyone's interest to ensure the success of all children in the United States. If you think otherwise, I kindly ask you to leave my country. Your self-centered outlook is killing America. As much as you'd like to think, you
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If 3 cents/gal for three years is 9 cents/gal, yes, Michigan is in trouble.
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(costing 3cents/gal. for 3 years for a total of an additional 9/gal)
If 3 cents/gal for three years is 9 cents/gal, yes, Michigan is in trouble.
I suspect he didn't phrase it correctly. Lemme Google for it... the Times Herald says that
Bipartisan legislation, introduced Tuesday by Rep. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, and House Minority Leader Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, would raise the gas tax 9 cents in three years - topping out at 28 cents per gallon by 2010.
So it seems he was correct. I guess they will be increasing it by 3 cents every year.
Re:Umm.. (Score:5, Insightful)
WRT to teachers, of course that's the best and surest way to improve education. Lower class size. If class size wasn't important than the elite in this country wouldn't be sending their kids to prep schools where classes are four or five students sitting around a table with a teacher.
While increasing the number of qualified teaches is almost a surefire way of improving education, it's also the most expensive. Since it's the most expensive thing you deal with, often money is well spent just to improve the effectiveness of our use of teacher time. This means hiring aides to handle non-teaching chores, specialists in math and reading and so forth.
My attitude toward something like this is like my attitude towards an Iraq troop surge: the idea itself is neither nor good nor bad, it depends on whether you have a credible plan to use them. I'm not saying that the iPod idea is a good one, but it is not necessarily bad. Just because iPods are a lot of fun doesn't mean they can't be used as serious educational tools. If money is tight, then creative ideas for marginal improvements are actually more worth looking at. If we were swimming in dough, the answer to the best use of our dough would be simple: reduce class sizes.
I have a feeling that the idea will go down in flames, because the public instinct is exactly the opposite. When we're flush, we might consider something like this. When money is tight, we obsess about things we can't afford.
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There's other advantages to those prep schools than class sizes. They don't have to accept all kids, meaning they can get rid of all but the best and brightest. They're also privately funded, so they can pay their teachers better and therefore get the better teachers.
Imagine you were a teacher fresh out of school with a good GPA, and had the following choice: Work in a public school system where you have 35+ kids in a class, including kids with behavioral problems, and get paid $25,000 per year or work in
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In controlled research, class size reduction shows academic improvement. Period.
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At my (michigan) high school, we couldn't afford *PAPER* to stock the classrooms. If kids needed paper or a pencil at any time during the day, we were told with straight faces that we should go out in the hall and beg from friends.
Meanwhile, across the road, we approved a multi-million dollar rennovation to our football stadium (yes, "stadium") which was already much nicer than most of the ones in the area; two of the best-liked teachers in the school (who were
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Some choice quotes:
Love the lack of fuss over no bid contracts (Score:3, Insightful)
Well if ya are committed to pissing away $30 mil when you already have a deficit I guess what you say makes sense.
And I want to know how Apple manages to get their product specced in legilation, avoiding bidding them out. Of course Apple, being by far the most expensive vendor, would never win the contract and some no name digital player wouldn't have the buzz for the bill's backers. This stinks of corruptio
Who will monitor the usage? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Honestly, that's too crazy and unheard of.
This is a horrible idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, how about spending the millions of dollars on teachers? I just can't see any real requirement for a DAP for educational purposes. Want the students to be able to listen to lectures as home? Put MP3's on the school website and let students listen to them at the computer or put them on their own DAP. Need students to be able to listen to audio on their own while in class? 30 million dollars buys a lot of blank CD-R's, and CD players are a hell of a lot less expensive than iPods.
30 million dollars also buys a hell of a lot of teacher bonuses. IMNSHO, Investing in teachers will have more of a benefit than whatever hair brained scheme they have cooked up for the iPods.
Re:This is a horrible idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to agree with the idea of investing money in teachers instead of the students though. Plans to give students free iPods and PSPs just seem to be extremely short sighted, as when given the choice between working and playing games/music I'm fairly sure I know which one most teenagers would choose. Giving the teachers laptops, maybe giving them Broadband for free at home, etc. would likely have a more beneficial effect on learning.
Re:This is a horrible idea. (Score:5, Informative)
I have to agree with the idea of investing money in teachers instead of the students though.
I am so tired of hearing about how underpaid teachers are. It's like a mantra that people just repeat and repeat without giving a whole lot of thought to. While it holds true for private schools, public school teachers have it pretty good.
Teachers' salaries in Michigan are among the highest in the nation at an average $54,474/year. And that's with an average education just slightly higher than a B.A.. In my area the state university's Teacher's College has the lowest average SAT & GPA of all of the programs in the school.
In addition, they only work 9 months out of the year and have every weekend, holiday and summer off. If a teacher chooses to work the entire year (teaching summer school), like most of us, he/she would make $72K. Add the excellent bennies that most public school employees have and I have a hard time shedding too many tears for them.
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Re:This is a horrible idea. (Score:4, Informative)
Having several public school teachers in my family and having taught myself for awhile, I can tell you first hand, your analysis of their economic situation is WAY off base. While teachers receive a decent salary, for many it is just that, a salary. They don't get paid for the countless hours they spend outside of school getting their work done.
You can't plan and organize a class during the time your teaching, you have to do it at home. And holidays? Please. Most of those days are spent fulfilling silly requirements for the state for continuing education seminars. Or grading 150 essays. Or going to the store to buy the materials your school district is too poor to pay for. Or buy supplies for kids whose parents don't have jobs and there's no support network to buy the kids backpacks or pencils. Never mind the afterschool meetings, the evenings calls with parents, the weekends spent in the school preparing for the next week...the list goes on.
Nevermind the fact that Michigan's public school teachers are probably some of the highest paid because of basically Oakland County. IIRC, Oakland county is in the top 5 richest counties in the country. There's a ton of money being tossed around there and honestly, it has some of the best schools in the state. Strangely, money seems to be buying a better education.
No one's asking public school teachers to be remunerated like brain surgeons, but at least create some incentives to excel at what you do. Seems like the harder you work in public schools, the more likely you are to get the jobs that there's just no pay for.
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I'm a software engineer and I'm on salary. No one pays me for pulling all nighters to meet deadlines, plus I get laid off every 2-3 years when my company goes out of business (because I work for start ups).
So, you could say boo fucking hoo for me, but i choose to do what I do. So do teachers. They have it pretty easy and I don't feel sorry for them. if they don't like their jobs, then they can quit and work somewhere else.
Their main problem isn't lack of pay - it is
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I like how people, when talking about how much teachers work, love to mention the fact they're only working 9 months a year. And then add in 'and holidays'. Um, no, not 'and holidays'. Teachers have to work 190 days or so, which barely fits in 9 months without holidays. School years are actually 10 months, with a month of holidays spaced in there.
So your calculations about summer school are entirely off. If the 10 month year paid 54 thousand, then summer school would be maybe another 11 thousand, so we're
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If some of the free content producers (podcasters etc) got their act together and offered content as well as the paid content producers, it might take off.
I'm in favour of audio teaching material. My son is accustomed to listening to audio lectures and books whilst playing his games now. It's not perfect, but as an extra to his normal studies it seems to work.
Unfortunately its likely that this will turn out to be yet another idealised liberal concept that fails in the face of cold ha
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Lets face it, 30 odd million is pocket change for the government.
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Re:This is a horrible idea. (Score:5, Funny)
You could spend the money on teachers, but will this give your kids THE BEST MUSIC PLAYER in the world? I don't think so.
Everyone could come up with the idea of giving the teachers money. But we have to DARE to be DIFFERENT. This is what distinguishes a follower from a leader. Are you a follower or a leader?
So, I think it's an INCREDIBLE IDEA. It's the BEST. IDEA. IN THE WORLD. EVER.
And that's nothing, EVERY KID IN AMERICA should have an iPod. Hell, every kid in the world should have one. Why spend all this money on inventing and producing OLPC, when iPod is here. Does OLPC even have headphones? Does it have a clickwheel? NO, it has a keyboard. Keyboards ARE BORING.
I know it, you know it, and the children know it: THIS is what really iPod is: raising the IQ of the children!
- Steve J.
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Wont you think of the children? Call your Senators and Represenatives and say you support S158774-2.
BTW: ignore the minor text at the back that says the bill also invokes martial law in the USA.
Thank you and God bless america!
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You clearly aren't after the BEST. Why have run-of-the-mill Opteron? They have just couple of cores. Nowadays, couple of cores is like a pocket calculator. Especially to Ruby on Rails.
You don't have money for THE BEST? Then you have even less money for THE WORST, so THIS EIGHT CORE MAC PRO [apple.com] is the PERFECT machine for this, or any, purpose. It's created ESPECIALLY FOR HOLDING SOURCE CODE, by our top engineer
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I think the problem is that the PO's already been signed, so the teachers would have to take their bonuses in iPods.
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Investing in teachers will have more of a benefit
I agree, but it's harder to do something like raise salaries or benefits, since that requires perpetual funding. While I understand you said "bonuses", which wouldn't require additional funding, with that scheme you need someone to establish bonus performance criteria, then someone to collect and monitor the performance, and someone to issue the bonuses (after providing reports to all concerned parties), and someone to provide oversight — that's probably enough work for a small-to-medium sized admin
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1. Paper industry. This one has been on the way out for about a decade at least. Fortunately, they've laid off about everyone they can already.
2. Chrysler/Ford/General Motors. Survey anybody who works for one of these companies, or for any of the thousands of companies that were built to do business with them, and I doubt you'll see too many of them who think they'll have jobs within the next 5 years.
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Biggest problem is the schools that pay the most don't have th
Some points (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Some points (Score:5, Insightful)
I work in higher education IT, and I have a fair idea about what does and does not work in the classroom. This is yet another example of people believing that throwing technology at students will make them learn better. We have done this on a grand national scale to the tune of billion of dollars in various programs, and so far it has not had a measurable impact. Where I work we just had one of the major DOE education program spends thousands of dollars on an enormous wide-format printer for underprivileged students. So that they can print posters. Posters. In college. This is their idea of a sound technological investment in education. Not to mention that we already had one just like it.
The fact of the matter is that no one "gets it" when it comes to technology in the classroom. An until they do, crap like this will keep creeping into legislation. The only silver lining about this is that there is no way in hell the governor will sign this measure into law.
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Study after study has shown exactly this. Technology doesn't make a difference - teachers who are well trained in using that technology in their classroom do. And not just a one-day workshop on "ideas for iPods in your classroom!" - often it takes sustained training over the school year, networking among the teachers to share ideas, etc. Then technology can do some great things, eve
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To successfully fund all these measures via taxing sat TV and soda, a new TV spot was created with a tagline "Be a patriot: drink soda and watch sat TV".
The budget for this TV spot will be funded from the income from sat TV and soda taxes as well. This way it makes sense.
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Heh heh heh.
Oh man, thanks for the chuckle this morning.
From what I know of government (not even talking about the U.S. specifically here), if a bad idea is worth doing, it's worth doing as inefficiently as possible...
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Whispered in their ear (Score:2, Funny)
"Here you go young child, here's a free ipod, can't pay for music on it? Don't worry - HA HA HA"
Rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of suing all those kids..
Great (Score:3, Funny)
In fact, the Wii promotes physical fitness as well, so they'd better give us one of them too. [It might seem weird to give us a game of a sport rather than encouraging us to actually do said sport, but it's not. It's progress =)]
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The benefit of the Wii is that its convenient, adaptive, and inside.
It's more convenient than, say, actual tennis because you don't have to find someone to play against, buy a racket and some balls, and find a tennis court that's not in use. By the time you're done with that you're probably going to be too tired to actually play tennis, especially if you're out of shape.
It's adaptive in th
... higher taxes to buy someone else's kid ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Part of being a community is pooling resources in to help others. Even if you don't have any children of your own, for example, someone paid for your schooling, and when you're an adult you pay it back.
Of course, then there are the endless arguments about exactly how this money should be spent...
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I am tired of paying money to the "community good" and watching it go to someplace else instead of my neighborhood, my schools, my commun
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If living in your community requires me to buy toys for all the little kiddies, then I don't want to live in your community. Thanks anyway.
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You got it in one. If the people don't like it, in a democratic society they get to elect someone the think can do a better job. I think if I were in an economically depressed state, I'd be looking for the state government to pour tons into eduction. Into teachers, school buildings and technology. If they economy is depressed they need a highly motivated, well educated workforce in an area with otherwise low costs.
I don't really think I can comment on whether thi
$920 million deficit means more spending, right? (Score:5, Interesting)
- the state of Michigan currently has a fiscal year 2007 budget of $920 million
- the state government has been instructed to prepare for a shutdown this may due to lack of funds
- next year's budget deficit is estimated to be more than $1 billion due to the single-business tax repeal that hasn't been replaced
- Gov. Granholm has proposed higher taxes (a 2% tax on services) to cover part of the current deficit
Combined with the problems of the Big 3 automakers (GM, Ford, Chrysler) that's been causing most of the economic slump in this area, the state legislatures have got to be daft to propose more spending on such silly projects. Now is the time for spending cuts, not increased spending!
The state has been trying to convince students to stay in the state following graduation; I for one will run out of this state as fast as I can once I graduate in a few months (PhD in Aerospace Engineering). There is no way I want to stick around and see the state legislature and governor make the state economy even worse than it is.
Why You're Wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
You're wrong. Michigan is experiencing a single state recession and the Governor's solution is to raise taxes on an already overburdened population. Michi
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I like Michigan, I have lived here my whole life. Most of my family lives here too. However, if I can't get a good paying job after graduatin
Some problems (Score:3, Interesting)
First of all, why Apple? I love Apple, and I love the iPod, but in many ways, it's a prestige brand, not something that is warranted for a utilitarian purpose such as this. You can easily find as capable and reliable MP3 players for less than half the price of an equivalent iPod. The "wow" factor and ease of integration with iTunes, are both major features of the iPod, and both totally irrelevant to the educational purposes talked about here.
Also, learning is a very visual medium. Unless we're talking about the super expensive video iPods, then the use will be limited to audio and minimal simplistic document reading. (There are other, cheaper devices that do video and documents better/cheaper than a non-video iPod.) Are most textbooks available/suitable/useful for viewing on a 1 inch screen? Wouldn't that involve buying digital copies of all the relevant texts, and additional and unnecessary cost?
Plus, it will disguise music use; "what are you doing, Jimmy?" "Listening to a lecture, ma'am." Meanwhile he's listening to tunes. Like it or not, school kids do need some structure and supervision; this makes it too easy to goof off.
It sounds like someone's trying to seem progressive, and is very misguided.
Ha ha only serious (Score:2)
You exaggerate, I think... the Apple Tax is more like 40% than 100%.
More Details... (Score:5, Funny)
"We'll intermix the lectures with the latest pop and hip-hop singles, and the kids will have to put up with listening to lectures randomly so they can play they favorite music. We think it'll be a smashing success.".
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What stops a kid from hitting the next button the iPod shuffle? Why try to pad the lecture with entertainment? I never believed edutainment actually works.
We're given the choice between tax and spend democrats, and borrow and spend republicans. if you come up with some new plan and show a way to pay for it,
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Well okay then... (Score:2, Funny)
So let me get this straight: Apple's next big product is called the iPorkBarrel?
wtf mang (Score:2, Insightful)
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Incomplete support (Score:4, Insightful)
I am a high school info tech teacher in Michigan. Some of my classes are currently working to produce podcasts to help improve their understanding of available resources to support their current and future learning and to increase the range of media that they can communicate through. I have only just heard of the iPod initiative. The research I share with my students shows that good podcasts take planning and use intelligent editing. Class lectures done in podcasts will be of no more value than current hard copy if the students don't listen to or view them.
iPods for learning have potential, but despite the good intentions, it currently is just another top down, half-baked solution to a serious problem. Past experience leads me to be very cynical of tech initiatives for education, not because they can't work, but because they are incompletely supported.
It's the content (Score:2)
Oh wait, schools hardly refresh textbooks as it is, that wouldn't raise enough money very fast
Even then, they often forget that putting an iPod / PDA / laptop in a kids' hands is useless without any specialized content to throw on it, and the support st
Cool, a second iPod, courtesy of the taxpayers! (Score:4, Insightful)
As of the end of 2006, there were 42 million iPods sold (http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6416165.htm
It strikes me that a large percentage of the Michigan school kids probably already have iPods.
Misguided (Score:4, Informative)
On the other hand, even supposing they have plenty of money they still made a bad choice.
Based on my experience with a new video iPod I received as a present:
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How about this? They don't take the money from the taxpayers in the first place and allow the taxpayers to decide how best to spend their own money?
Excuse me, Michigan (Score:2, Insightful)
Devil's advocacy thread (Score:2)
You can try to stuff more math and language arts training into children, but in most cases the marginal effort would be better spent on music education. Yes, of course we need basic skills in math and writing. But actual fluency in using those skills has a lot in common with music, and we have no better way of training those aspects of functional literacy than music.
My state has rigorous exa
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someone elses kid? (Score:2)
"..tax soda and satellite TV services, among other things, to raise funds."
They are asking for a 504 discrimination lawsuit! (Score:2)
I wonder if there would be the same type... (Score:3, Insightful)
Probably not... although, I imagine that 30 years ago, there was probably some resistance to buying kids Apple II's in their schools, with the same old curmudgeon responses, "But the roads stink. We don't need more stuff in schools... bah!!!"
Yes, Michigan roads stink... I always know I've hit the Michigan border when I hear the "kerchunk, kerchunk" every few seconds... you can set a timer to it. Perhaps it's the fact that you guys drive like 90 MPH.
Michigan is in the same dire straights that Ohio is now, but it's not because of Jennifer Granholm or anything the state government did or did not do. The U.S. automobile industry is in the tanker, and the economy of Michigan feeds off of the Big 3. No amount of state intervention (or non-intervention) would have helped the situation. If you can blame anyone, blame our federal government, who has shown little interest in protecting American industries. Michigan is just feeling it's disastrous effects. Of course, political opponents are using this to their advantage. But, does anyone really believe that DeVos would have been able to improve anything?
This single line item in the budget that has everybody so in an uproar won't pass. It can't pass, since the state can't run a deficit like the feds... It sure struck a nerve, but unfairly so, I believe.
Thanks,
Mike
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Ahh michigan, where you can go by a state trooper doing 80, because he's looking for the guys doing 110...
Road conditions in Michigan suck for four reasons:
1. Climate. The temp swings 120 degrees every year, and usually can swing 60 degrees in a week. Yeah, I know this happens in other states, but Mi
Good grief (Score:2, Flamebait)
educational iPod ? (Score:2, Interesting)
Apple (Score:2)
I listen to molecular bio in my car (Score:2)
This is a good thing (Score:2)
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Is it really Apple iPods? (Score:2)
TFA is very light on verifiable facts. It links to an editorial, not a news article. I dug arounbd for a while but couldn't find what the proposers of this idea actually said, only those attacking them.
But one thing, it does say "MP3 player or iPod". This could very likely mean that "iPod" is being used as a generic term; like "walkman", "hoover", kleeenx", as just meaning a kind of hardware despite their being trademarks
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I wonder what Nicholas Negroponte thinks about this and whether distributing $100 laptops to poor U.S. kids is still a stupid idea.
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The bill includes the cost savings by releasing 2400 prisoners. They will Not be given iPods. Instead, each will get a confiscated weapon if they promise to move to Ohio.
Not yet made public is a clause that makes Detroit part of Canada. "We are hoping that the change does Detroit good, moving to a new place can have that effect, you know, and Canada is really very nice,really."
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Although trademark dilution might seem to be a problem for their owners, Apple, Kimberly-Clark and Johnson & Johnson are crying all the way to the bank. I'll let them fight that battle, and I'll try to stop people from calling me 'Bob'.
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Well, the CNet article does mention iPods by name, as does the Detroit Free Press article. So while they do also use the more generic terms "digital music player" and "MP3 player", it does seem that at least someone over that has begun leaning towards the Apple device.
BTW, correct me if I am wrong (I don't own an iPod, I went for the cheaper and more technologically advanced iAudio x5), but iPods can't record audio, can they? Since one of the supposed benefits I keep on hearing about is that they can re
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Re:I'm sorry, what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Er.. no. How many billions more dollars must be wasted on the 'education system' before people realize throwing money at it does no good - including pay for teachers. Note that in 2005 the median household income was $46,300. [we'll assume teacher salaries are not so widely dispersed that the mean is a fair estimate of the median] Teachers get a tremendous benefits package and do not work a full year. The students educated before electronic blackboards, computers in every class, class size under 20, (insert stupid education metric here) managed to graducate high school and go on to such things as developing quantum mechanics, various field theories, nuclear weapons, man on moon, space probes,.... And until you actually pay for the little rugrats education by owning a property you will never fully understand just how much it costs. My latest assessment results in local school taxes in excess of the full year tuition at the state college. And before you claim the college is subsidized, so is the local school system. The system is horribly broke and it is time turn back the clock and revert to what once worked very well (note to parents: this might also include getting the balls to disciplining your child).
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There's three big problems with the American educational system at the moment.
* Money going to the wrong places - computers bought with no plans in mind, new buildings without staff for them, extraordinary administra