Apple to hand back $4.2M to LAUSD to settle failed ‘iPad for every student’ program
Apple has agreed to repay $4.2M to settle a claim by the L.A. Unified School District over the disastrous attempt to put an iPad into the hands of every student, reports the Los Angeles Times. It was first reported back in April that the LAUSD might take legal action against Apple to recoup the money spent on iPads for the program. Apple had initially expected to earn $30M from the first phase, a number that would have reached around a quarter of a billion dollars if the rollout had been completed as originally planned.
The first sign of trouble emerged when students managed to bypass the restrictions designed to ensure the devices could be used only for school work, but that was only the start. The LAUSD was accused of having miscalculated the cost of the program, resulting in its suspension and later abandonment.
Both the FBI and the SEC were called in to investigate allegations of corruption, and a federal review concluded that the entire project had been doomed from the start.
The Board of Education is expected to vote on whether or not to finalize Apple’s settlement offer. If so, nearly all the money repaid by Apple will be used to buy computers through a fresh program.
Image: Huffington Post
