As the day progressed we noticed that every person in the room had a laptop with them. As we checked out the different brands and models my technician noticed a couple of really nice Dell laptops sitting in front of the guys right in front of us. His interest in the machines was peaked and he looked them up on the Dell Education website. As you can see in the following screenshot, these laptops cost over $3000 each.
Now I guess what I don't understand is why a school district would purchase such expensive laptops. My question is...is this really the best way to spend taxpayers' money?
I can understand purchasing tablet PCs because of their educational possibilities or even rugged laptops for technicians that are using them in switch closets and other places where they are more likely to be dropped, but nice tablet PCs can be purchased less than for $1500. A Panasonic Toughbook can be obtained for two-thirds the price of this Dell Precision laptop as evidenced by this simple search. Both of these options are more expensive than a basic laptop, but they have their place - what is the place for a $3000 laptop in public education?
