Greeted with a standing ovation from a large group of students, parents and administrators, The Kansas City School Board unanimously approved a groundbreaking program to supply all 5,500 of its high school students with laptop computers during the school day. Dawn Bormann in The Kansas City Star, writes, “No other public school district has approved a laptop program of the same scope.”

The August 29 announcement followed a lengthy decision-making process, and there is still work to be done. Writes Bormann, “Board members will not vote on the ‘lending’ part of the program until Sept. 11.” Given that people have been attacked for tennis shoes and other possessions, many are reluctant to let students go home with laptops. The machines will be equipped with technology that allows officials to destroy the hard drive if the computer is stolen.

High school students are expected to get their Apple laptops for school-day use later this fall with a $6.4 million, four-year lease.

Writes Bormann,

Deputy Superintendent Steve Gering cautioned that some districts have jumped on the computer bandwagon for the wrong reasons.

"It's neat, it's exciting, it's techy, it's glitzy. Frankly, those are the wrong reasons," Gering said.

He said the district thinks laptops are one of many tools that can improve achievement and also bridge the technology gap. There are no plans to do away with textbooks.

"We don't see the laptops as the only thing that will impact college readiness or achievement," Gering said. "It's part of the package."

Click here for the full article, KCK schools will let all high-schoolers use laptops during school day