This week more than 5,000 Apple MacBook laptop computers will be distributed to high school students in the Kansas City, Kansas Public School System. It’s part of the school system’s one-to-one computing initiative.
In August, the Kansas City Board of Education voted to lease MacBooks for each high school student in the district, and in September modified their policy to allow students to “check out” the MacBooks for use at home.
This is the first district-wide laptop distribution in the Kansas City metropolitan area, according to a statement from the Superintendent’s office. It’s also the first to focus on providing laptops to poor and minority students who might otherwise not be able to use a computer at home — more than 75 percent of students in the Kansas City system qualify for for free or reduced lunches, for example).