>> Chicago auctioning away its parking revenue for 75 years for a mere $1.6B was a far bigger mistake and curse upon the public. At least the chromebooks have a far shorter lifetime

Given that upcoming self-driving revolution likely means those parking spaces will have very little use, it may end up to be an unintentionally wise decision.

Out of curiosity, what does Chicago's yearly parking revenue look like? (Not doubting that they made a bad deal, just curious.)

I’d rather mark that as corruption, not mistake. Those people are not stupid (when they can sprinkle $$ to their friends).

> Chicago auctioning away its parking revenue for 75 years for a mere $1.6B was a far bigger mistake and curse upon the public.

Depending on your perspective, you might see that as a boon to the cause of free parking.

For a one-time $60/computer they could put a 1 TB nvme drive in preloaded with whatever software they need, all of English wikipedia, all classic literature and textbooks they will reference, and 850 GB of whatever else is useful reference material (e.g. maybe all of the Khan Academy videos). It's very non-obvious to me that school computers need an Internet connection at all. Have it back up the kids' home folders onto a school network drive automatically when it gets on the school wifi.

> It’s a good idea to enable cellular service for those who don’t have adequate access at home.

But then the students with mobile access have an advantage over those who only have home access. And how do you determine who has adequate access at home and who doesn't? Much easier and more equitable to just provide it for everyone.

Classic capitalist state leeching tactics, I'm betting somebody got a favor somewhere.

This is just plain corruption and the government officials were paid off. The parents of students should have been given the option to request the devices if needed and that would have been 1000x cheaper.

> I don't think Chromebooks are good computers for kids to learn on.

I think its fine for kids to learn on. Its arguably not ideal for learning computing, but that's not most of what kids learn using a computer.

> What is the reason given for Chromebooks being used so much in US schools?

Price per unit and the fact that its bundled with software and services for centralized administration. There's nothing comparable in traditional Linux. Windows could have competed but dropped the low-end netbook as a category right around when Google started making inroads with Chromebook, and even with Windows-on-ARM neither Microsoft nor anyone using Windows seems to have really targeted the same market.

> Is it just Google having a good sales team?

I don't know how good their sales team is, I think they are the only firm that acts like they want market at all.

You can always reinstall if the kid messes with the OS too much. --> then all your sysadmins will be reinstalling os all the time? so they figured why not give the users an OS that cannot be messed with...

unless maybe the sysadmins are also linux tutors or something? their job is teaching kids how to use linux. not to make sure their computers can work for the math class.

> What is the reason given for Chromebooks being used so much in US schools?

Chromebooks are much cheaper than Windows laptops.

Similarly priced chromebooks are also much more responsive than their Windows counterparts (mainly due to the OS being so optimized to run on crappy hardware). And you're right -- Linux might be a viable alternative here. But it's not like the corporate world runs on Linux.

They’re a pretty good mix of incredibly cheap, reasonably rugged, fast enough to run classroom and edit docs, well-understood/documented how to use, consistent across the student population, and have incredible battery life.

Our high school issues every entering student a Chromebook and they keep it when they leave. I am pretty happy to see my tax money spent that way.

That's a good mid-term project, but this is how you give kids internet access today. Whether Chromebook/internet-based schooling is something worth pursuing in general is another matter.

You should check out Eric Adams in more detail. The guy - and his team - ranges from ridiculous to nuts to outright corrupt. A few excerpts:

>> Equally memorable, perhaps, were the strange subplots along the way: his hatred of rats and fear of ghosts; the mysteries about his home, his diet, his childhood; and his endless supply of catchphrases, gestures and head-scratching stories that could instantly transform a mundane bureaucratic event into a widely shared meme.

>> Then, on Sept. 26, 2024, federal prosecutors brought fraud and bribery charges against Adams, accusing him of allowing Turkish officials and other businesspeople to buy his influence with illegal campaign contributions and steep discounts on overseas trips.

>> Investigators also seized phones from the mayor's police commissioner, schools chancellor and multiple deputy mayors. Each denied wrongdoing, but a mass exodus of leadership followed, along with questions about the mayor’s ability to govern.

>> ...Weeks after Trump took office, the Justice Department dismissed the corruption case, writing in a two-page memo that it had interfered with Adams’ ability to help with the president’s immigration agenda.

Just wait till you see what foolish stuff the new guy will do! He’s already promised a lot of real whoppers