School Board Divided on US Army's Computers for Learning Program

The U.S. Army is offering up to 250 computers to Syracuse City Schools but an assistant superintendent says it's not as good an offer as it might seem. Lt. Col. Brian Radcliff, a recruitment officer in Syracuse, showed the school board at its monthly meeting the Computers for Learning Program, which donates old military computers without hard drives to schools in the United States.

Radcliff said that the program is an opportunity for the district to get 250 relatively new and cheap Dell GX620 laptops and desktop computers into the school system. The only expense for the three-year-old computers would be for the new hard drives, which cost anywhere from $150-$200, since the old ones contain “sensitive information.” He estimated that the district could set up an operating computer lab for 20 or 25 students for $1,000.

Deputy Superintendent Anita Murphy disagreed with Superintendent Daniel Lowengard’s initial interest, which he showed after the Lt. Col. was done speaking. “The decision is not that obvious," she said after the meeting. "Urban kids deserve the same things that suburban kids do. Suburban kids have brand new machines and state of the art technology. We’re pretty careful about not putting five year old technology in urban kids’ hands.” But Murphy said the board would look into the program.

After the meeting, Radcliff disagreed with Murphy, saying the computers are a cost efficient resource for poorer schools. He said that even with the current economy, “technology in today’s education world is paramount.”