Remember when that guy was offering to buy every classroom free TVs in exchange for the school&#x27;s commitment to have the kids watch a certain amount of programming a day?  The programming included ads.  This seems the same.  Having the kids load linux onto laptops, yeah... I could understand the value in that.  Having them work with Raspberry Pi&#x27;s, I could see the merit in that.  Program robots?  Definitely.  But this debacle of Apple products for kids has been terrible.  I do believe the schools and city councils are well meaning.  Yes, these expenditures are so huge the city councils have to often get involved.  But introducing kids to computing via the walled gardens of Apple are a disservice to them, and a step back, in my opinion.  Apple devices are imminently non-configurable... they are designed to walk you through the computing experience, training you to seek the help of &#x27;geniuses&#x27; as opposed to becoming your own genius.  The cost of these programs is astounding.  Districts could be loading linux onto machines bought for relatively nothing... those linux skills would be immediately applicable to Raspberry Pis and to robots.  Are schools afraid of really educating their students, as opposed to making them dependents of Apple&#x27;s consumer culture?