Thousands of Department of Education-purchased computers and tablets are either missing or sitting unused in the city's schools, according to an audit by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Mr. Stringer's office surveyed 10 public schools and found that more than 1,800 computers were unaccounted for or missing entirely, while nearly 400 laptops and tablets were found unpacked and unused. These findings raise the possibility that millions of dollars in computer equipment for city schools could be missing, the comptroller said.
"It is an insult to families who are desperate to access technology for their children to leave brand new computers and tablets unused in closets and storage facilities," Mr. Stringer said in a statement. "If auditors can’t locate an average of 180 computers per school, this may be just the tip of the iceberg."
Auditors examined how DOE maintained controls over computer hardware purchased through two separate contracts with Apple and Lenovo entered in September 2009 and July 2011, respectively. The contracts have been used to purchase more than 211,000 computers and tablets worth north of $197 million as of September 2014.
Most of the missing computers—1,090—were listed as "asset location unknown" from one school, P.S. 168 in the Bronx, by the DOE. The remaining 727 missing computers were physically missing from nine other schools.
Auditors also found large caches of computers sitting unused in school closets. At Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, 78 laptops and iPads, some purchased in 2011, were found unopened.
6 comments:
Gee - perhaps some principals and their assts. should be investigated and FIRED!!!! Esp. the ones with now-obsolete technology sitting in a closet.
C'mon - most of the students could have set them up in a few minutes!
Who evaluates principals? Teachers, parents, students? Are they evaluated at all?
Typical of the way DOE works, use up the entire budget this year or we will not get the money next year. Take a look at the garbage at your local schools, they throw out lots of usable items at the end of each school year.
Would make a lot more sense to provide free wimax where they live using QPL libraries as antenna bases
This also happened in Los Angeles:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/08/27/343549939/the-l-a-school-ipad-scandal-what-you-need-to-know
It's gotta be the fault of all those Republican city council members in LA and NYC, or maybe George W. Bush, or something, or like, whatever.....
during my 1965-78 office equipment(desktop computers) sales to the Bd. of ed. ,this was common.it was common to deliver two rooms of typewriters(50) 0n a Friday and have them stolen over the weekend. NO PROBLEM ,the district would quickly place another order the next week.
2015 DOE BUDGET NEARING $22BILLION and rising when the now C.American illegal child immigration continues. about 2600 in nyc ,so far??????
Crap like this justifies my decision to vote NO on Proposal 3 - The Smart Schools Bond Act of 2014. Unfortunately, it passed anyway. Now, NYS taxpayers will be paying bond interest for 20 years for tech purchased in 2015 that will never make its way into the hands of a student anyway.
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