Rent-seekers target school laptops in Oz election year
Getting more cash from the cow
Ensure Ease of Recovery with Asigra’s Agentless Software
School, parent and teacher lobbies around Australia are gearing up to persuade the government to continue funding the laptops-in-schools program due to expire in June 2013.
As noted in the National Partnership Agreement on the Digital Education Revolution (available here), the funding formalised between the federal government and the states in 2011 was due to expire on 30 June 2013.
However, with a federal election set down for September 14, the program has regained its status as a political hot button, with principals – well, a couple of them anyhow – telling outlets such as Fairfax that the “uncertainty” is unfair to parents, teachers and students.
The principal of Northcote High told the media outlet her school is looking at leasing arrangements in the future, something which has popped up before even without the looming expiration of the funding program.
Exactly what’s uncertain about the expiration of a fixed-term funding arrangement is lost on Vulture South, as is the notion that announcing a funding deal in 2011 and having it reach the end of its term can be described as a “another example of Labor’s failure to manage money” (as a spinner for Victoria’s education minister Martin Dixon told Fairfax).
But it’s an election year, and there’s money to be sniffed. The question will be whether the Federal government is proof against the political pain it might suffer if it merely allows the program to expire as was its original intent. ®
COMMENTS
The problem is the money has already run out, program ends in June yet we have gotten no funding for this years round when we were promised the money and many other schools are in this situation. That leaves a $250,000 shortfall that our school cannot cover and now we have a year without laptops, yes we were planning a model that didn't involve the government handouts but we were operating on the assured assumption it wouldn't need to be until next year. Then again we're in South Australia so the Feds don't really care about us, less votes to be had here.
Or not...
The government pays for nothing. It is only the tax payers that pay anything.
While hand outs will buy votes from those that pay less tax than they receive hand outs, they cost votes in areas where the people pay more tax than they receive hand outs.
No, you must be mistaken with the little balding fella with big black glasses.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
