Skip to main content

Schools demand huge refund from Apple for educational iPads deemed unusable

apple ipad connected classroom success tim cook air 2
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Back in 2013 when the Los Angeles Unified School District set forth on a plan to provide every student with an iPad, it seemed like an innovative and forward thinking approach to technology and education. Fast forward to today and it looks a lot more like a mess. The botched plan has left the LAUSD frustrated and looking for a refund from Apple, according to the L.A. Times.

The 2013 initiative was an ambitious and costly undertaking as it attempted to equip over 650,000 kids with a new iPad. The tablets, purchased from Apple, have software from Pearson, a large U.S. educational technology firm, installed on them.

Where things started to go downhill was upon implementation of the tablets and software in the schools. Technological issues arose and students were easily able to bypass the security firewall on the iPads, giving them unfettered access to the tablets instead of locking them into the educational ecosystem. Independent studies also suggest that the curriculum software was often incomplete.

The jumbled plan, which cost $1.3 billion dollars only to have it fail rather spectacularly, has led to the LAUSD’s Board of Education searching for ways to handle the situation. Currently, they are exploring the possibility of pursuing legal action against Apple and Pearson.

Pearson defends itself, Apple keeps quiet

The LAUSD’s general council David Holmquist sent a letter to Apple on Monday expressing the district’s frustration. “As you are aware, LAUSD is extremely dissatisfied with the work of Pearson,” he wrote. “While Apple and Pearson promised a state-of-the-art technological solution … they have yet to deliver it.”

A spokesman from Pearson defended its product to Reuters: “Pearson is proud of our long history working with LAUSD and our significant investment in this ground-breaking initiative. This was a large-scale implementation of new technologies and there have been challenges with the initial adoption, but we stand by the quality of our performance.” As for Apple, it’s staying quiet about the whole situation, perhaps because there isn’t much for it to say. The issues the school district had were primarily with the software.

The initiative, as forward thinking as it may have been at the time, has been plagued with troubles all along the way. In December 2014, the FBI raided the school district and left with 20 boxes of information pertaining to the program. The superintendent resigned following the raid, though claimed no wrongdoing took place.

Most recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation into how the bond funds for the huge project were being spent by the district. While the school district remains confident that it did not mishandle or misspend any of the money that was to be directed toward the program, one may wonder if the potential lawsuit against the world’s most profitable company may be an attempt to displace blame after a huge, costly initiative went belly up amidst ongoing suspension of wrongdoing.

Editors' Recommendations

AJ Dellinger
AJ Dellinger is a freelance reporter from Madison, Wisconsin with an affinity for all things tech. He has been published by…
Apple has an iPad shocker planned for early 2024
A 2021 iPad Pro is attached to a keyboard on a desk.

The promised one is barely a few months away. We’ve been hearing rumors of an OLED iPad Pro for the past few years, but early in 2024, Apple will give finally its premium tablet the screen upgrade we’ve all been waiting anxiously for.

According to Bloomberg, the iPad Pro 2024 will offer an OLED screen and the natural silicon upgrade to the M3 generation. Currently under development under the code names J717, J718, J720, and J721, these new iPads will have 13-inch or 11-inch form factors.
Plenty of iPad Pro upgrades

Read more
These developers are doing something amazing with iPhone and iPad apps
Apple App Store Awards 2023 logo.

Every year, Apple announces the winners of its App Store Awards. In 2023, it recognized 14 titles across five platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. These titles are not only considered the "best" from a design standpoint, but they have also positively contributed to the world in some way.

Recently, I had the privilege of meeting with the teams behind three of these award-winning apps. At first glance, AllTrails, Prêt-à-Makeup, and Pok Pok may seem vastly different, but as I discovered, they all have at least one thing in common: inclusivity. Each also looks pretty sweet on an iPhone 15, iPad Air, and other Apple devices.

Read more
This strange accessory did something amazing to my iPad
Person working on iPad Pro with Xreal Air 2 connected.

Apple has been trying to sell the idea of using an iPad — the Pro model, specifically — as a legitimate computing machine for a while. It started with putting a Mac-borrowed M-series silicon inside the tablet, followed by bringing Stage Manager to the tablet.

Then came desktop-grade productivity apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Da Vinci Resolve, preceded by Microsoft 365 and Adobe’s editing tools. The ability to plug in an external monitor is also neat for a tablet, but that restricts you to a table.

Read more