One million lines of cellular service for 800,000 students.
It’s a good idea to enable cellular service for those who don’t have adequate access at home. The majority of people don’t fit this description, though. As the article says, only about 1/8th of the students surveyed could be categorized as having inadequate access.
Somebody pushed a huge contract and got it, even though the service wasn’t needed at this scale. WiFi Chromebooks by default with a cellular option for the students who needed it would have saved a lot of recurring cellular contract charges.
But then the students with mobile access have an advantage over those who only have home access. And how do you determine who has adequate access at home and who doesn't? Much easier and more equitable to just provide it for everyone.
>> Equally memorable, perhaps, were the strange subplots along the way: his hatred of rats and fear of ghosts; the mysteries about his home, his diet, his childhood; and his endless supply of catchphrases, gestures and head-scratching stories that could instantly transform a mundane bureaucratic event into a widely shared meme.
>> Then, on Sept. 26, 2024, federal prosecutors brought fraud and bribery charges against Adams, accusing him of allowing Turkish officials and other businesspeople to buy his influence with illegal campaign contributions and steep discounts on overseas trips.
>> Investigators also seized phones from the mayor's police commissioner, schools chancellor and multiple deputy mayors. Each denied wrongdoing, but a mass exodus of leadership followed, along with questions about the mayor’s ability to govern.
>> ...Weeks after Trump took office, the Justice Department dismissed the corruption case, writing in a two-page memo that it had interfered with Adams’ ability to help with the president’s immigration agenda.
Fios js something like $75/mo for gigabit Ethernet (inclusive of a WiFi router, etc) and there are smaller gigabit providers that will give you service for under $50. And with bulk contracts I’m sure the govt could get a better price than even that.
If the govt can negotiate a rate of about $25/mo it could provide all 800k students homes high quality internet.
But only about 115k are estimated to have insufficient internet access so at $50/month, you can provide (let’s round up to 150k students) all their families internet access for $90mm as opposed to the $200mm they’re currently paying.
Nevermind. The article states the city has gotten Spectrum to agree to $15/mo service. So providing every student’s family free internet service would cost the city $160mm. You would still save well over 20% before considering the hardware cost savings by not having to buy LTE.
I agree. But for some reason teachers work after school and at weekends, for free. I’m unsure why they don’t just stop.
What is the reason given for Chromebooks being used so much in US schools? Is it just Google having a good sales team?
Chromebooks are much cheaper than Windows laptops.
Similarly priced chromebooks are also much more responsive than their Windows counterparts (mainly due to the OS being so optimized to run on crappy hardware). And you're right -- Linux might be a viable alternative here. But it's not like the corporate world runs on Linux.
Our high school issues every entering student a Chromebook and they keep it when they leave. I am pretty happy to see my tax money spent that way.
unless maybe the sysadmins are also linux tutors or something? their job is teaching kids how to use linux. not to make sure their computers can work for the math class.
Since COVID the city has had to ensure students can attend school remotely. A number of students in the city don’t have reliable internet connections at home (indeed some are homeless) so an alternative is needed.
I imagine it’s very difficult to guarantee you’ve reached out to ensure every kid has internet access. Send a form home? A bunch of disengaged parents won’t fill it out. How you support a student whose parent does absolutely nothing to help is a perennial problem in schools. This at least guarantees everyone has access.
epistasis•1h ago
Chicago auctioning away its parking revenue for 75 years for a mere $1.6B was a far bigger mistake and curse upon the public. At least the chromebooks have a far shorter lifetime
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/12/nx-s1-5642708/chicago-parking...
thaumasiotes•1h ago
Depending on your perspective, you might see that as a boon to the cause of free parking.
otherjason•1h ago
lithos•1h ago
They sold parking rate setting, collections, and towing to a mixture of Morgan Stanley and Abu Dhabi
nkrisc•1h ago
lotsofpulp•58m ago
I’m pretty sure they sold the street parking because of the underfunded obligations to previous employees.
These reports go further in depth, with comparisons to other governments:
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/resources/page/state-repor...
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/resources/page/city-report...
kelnos•1h ago
blahyawnblah•58m ago
loeg•23m ago
markus_zhang•50m ago
loandbehold•47m ago
Given that upcoming self-driving revolution likely means those parking spaces will have very little use, it may end up to be an unintentionally wise decision.
halestock•31m ago
chrisshroba•23m ago
pseudalopex•23m ago
[1] https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-parking-meters...
stogot•19m ago
pseudalopex•15m ago
callc•22m ago
Dismissing concerns of issues that affect people today with the promise of some solution that may or may not happen to the degree you think it may address the real problems of today is really not cool.
On other note, Chicago in winter may be icy driving. It may be harder to convince Chicagoans to join the “revolution” that sunny day Californians (or any other non-icy weather areas)