A deal between Apple and Georgia ’s Cobb County School District that could ultimately leave in 63,000 iBooks has been stop frigid because of a lawsuit filed by a former county commissioner . Superior Court Judge S. Lark Ingram order the iBook deployment to stop on Friday .
foretell as the turgid ever “ one - to - one ” computing initiative , Cobb County ’s “ Power to Learn ” program used money reserve from a especial taxation investment company Georgia taxpayers in individual counties can bespeak call Special Purpose Location Option Sales Tax , or SPLOST . How this tax nullification was play to voters is primal to the justice ’s decision , allot to theAtlanta Journal - Constitution .
Cobb County School District PR director Jay Dillon toldMacCentralin May that the deal with Apple funding the first stage of the “ Power to teach ” programme cost the school dominion about $ 23.5 million — less than one one-fourth the amount some local news agencies had report , and about four percent of the overall SPLOST programme . That phase of the plan , which began in May , was supposed to put 17,000 iBooks into the hands of instructor across the district , as well as gamey shoal students at four “ demonstration ” site .
Apple had hoped that , if the first phase angle was successful , it would ultimately guide to a total of 63,000 iBooks installed in the Cobb County school program . expert from the University of Georgia ’s Learning & Performance Support Laboratory were to measure the programme ’s strength before Cobb County school officials would have vote on whether to cover the program .
That was n’t secure enough for former Cobb County commissioner Butch Thompson , however . Thompson filed suit of clothes against Cobb County to break the computer program earlier this yr . Represented by former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes , Thompson argued that taxpayers were misled about how the SPLOST money would be spent .
The language of the tax override passed by Cobb County voters in 2003 was n’t specific enough to inform voter that the money might be used to fund the lease of laptop computers , according to Thompson . “ I did n’t vote for laptop computer for every student in the county , and I do n’t mean anyone else did , ” Thompson told theAssociated Pressin June .
TheAtlanta Journal - Constitutionreportsthat jurist Ingram agreed , and put the brakes on the program . “ As a termination of the opinion , the only way school day officials could pay up for the program would be to use their world-wide stock , ” say the paper .
The school instrument panel will gather on Monday even , August 1 , 2005 to hash out the decision and check whether they ’ll invoke the opinion .
Representatives from Cobb County and Apple were not useable for scuttlebutt on the ruling asMacCentralposted this article .
