Is the Digital Conversion of Baltimore’s Schools a Worry for All Schools?
What’s the Status of STAT Costs? In a Dozen Years, that Could Be a Billion Dollar Question
A year ago, the public first glimpsed the costs of BCPS’ digital initiative when the “STAT budget” was released. A revised tally is back, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
By Joanne C. Simpson
A blur of money is spinning around the virtual vortex where our Students and Teachers are supposedly Accessing Tomorrow via STAT. The question: Is this a space-time passage to the future or a budgetary black hole?
The $1.6 billion Baltimore County Public School’s proposed operating budget for next school year was just released—and the cost of the laptop-per-student initiative still remains nearly as opaque as wormholes and astrophysics.
Overall, STAT’s evolving scenario seems a mash-up of multimillion-dollar “techbooks,” controversial Spanish-language software, unclear rising expenses, possibly stealth purchasing policies, and interactive classroom projectors that could tap a school’s Is the Digital Conversion of Baltimore’s Schools a Worry for All Schools?: