Los Angeles school district demands multi-million dollar refund from Apple

An ill-fated program to give an iPad to every kid is coming to an abrupt halt

by Megan Geuss - Apr 15, 2015 7:39pm EDT 

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) told Apple that it would not accept any further deliveries of Pearson curriculum, which Apple has been providing as part of a $1.6 billion plan to give every student in the nation's second-largest school district an iPad. LAUSD also asked for a “multi-million dollar refund” for software that had already been delivered, according to local public radio station KPCC.

$1.3-billion project crashes and burns as new superintendent shelves it

In 2013 the school district signed an initial $30 million deal with Apple in a program that was supposed to cost up to $1.3 billion. As part of the program, LAUSD said it would buy iPads from Apple at $768 each, and then Pearson, a subcontractor with Apple, would provide math and science curriculum for the tablets at an additional $200 per unit.

Not a month after the pilot program launched, students were found disabling app and browser limitations on their tablets. A month after that, LAUSD reported that a third of the 2,100 iPads distributed during the pilot program had gone missing. A year later, media investigations revealed possible malfeasance in securing the contract with Apple and Pearson by LAUSD superintendent John Deasy. While Deasy has denied wrongdoing, he recently stepped down from his position and his successor, Ramon C. Cortines, has said he will scrap the program.

Before the program is scrapped, however, it seems LAUSD will try to get some of its money back. In a letter to Apple's general counsel this week, David Holmquist, the school district's attorney, wrote that LAUSD was “extremely dissatisfied” with Pearson's product.

"While Apple and Pearson promised a state-of-the-art technological solution for ITI [Instructional Technology Initiative, LAUSD's internal name for the iPad program] implementation, they have yet to deliver it."

"As we approach the end of the school year, the vast majority of students are still unable to access the Pearson curriculum on iPads," Holmquist wrote according to KPCC, which obtained a copy of the letter.

In his letter, Holmquist also said that the district "will not accept or compensate Apple for new deliveries of [Pearson] curriculum."

According to the Los Angeles Times, LAUSD teachers never fully embraced the Pearson curriculum, and this week the school district placed an order for new math textbooks that the Pearson software was supposed to replace.