$70 million in iBooks?

ajc.com | Cobb wants Apples for teachers and students

Looks like my old school system has eliminated both Dell and IBM from consideration for a very large laptop program, in favor of about 63,000 iBooks from Apple.

Cobb County's public schools expected to pay about $275 each for the machines (and that's one healthy volume discount), but also will be buying support, training and maintenance, that make up the bulk of the deal. If the Journal-Constitution's numbers are right, 63,000 students times $275 per iBook runs only about $17.25 million, so the majority of the costs (as we all know) come after acquisition.

The system intends to roll the program out in three phases, first to teachers, then high schoolers, and finally to middle school students.

The linked article includes dates and times for 4 meetings the superintendent is holding for parents during the next 3 weeks.