Over the past two years, our school has been bombarded with pleas to vote for one of the district elementary schools in a technology grant of some kind. Last year, Mize Elementary won a $50,000 grant for technology through the Pepsi Refresh Project, and Prairie Ridge recently won $25,000 in a Clorox voting contest, also to be used for technology. Most students at our school would attest to the fact that these schools campaigned heavily for the voting, trying everything from making YouTube videos, to handing out treats to students, to coming up with creative slogans (iMize technology), to airing ads on MVTV.
But after voting multiple times for both Mize and Prairie Ridge, I began to wonder what the money would be used for. Yes, I want to fully support the schools in our district. But our district doesn’t seem to be struggling. In fact, it just spent $1.3 million to purchase 1,274 new computers, some of which benefitted the district elementary schools. Yet the elementary schools made it seem as if both grants were necessary to their improvement.
Mize initially ran for both a Clorox grant and a Pepsi grant, hoping to purchase new computers for the school and buy Smart Boards, interactive white boards that teachers can control while still moving around the room. Prairie Ridge ran for another Clorox grant with the goal to “provide students access to Smart Boards, Tablets, iPads, Doc Cams, Skype and updated laptops,” according to the information on the Power a Bright Future website.
North Elementary, a school in Brighton, Colo., was also in the running for the Clorox grant against Prairie Ridge. The school only has laptops for teachers, many of its students do not have access to computers at home, the library has no computers available to students and its TVs play only VHS tapes. Only 53 percent of the school’s students are proficient in reading, compared to 96.1 percent in our district. Yet, despite the seemingly obvious differences in the needs of the two schools, Prairie Ridge won the voting contest for the Clorox grant. North Elementary only received money after being named the “Judge’s Pick.”
While it is important to make sure the schools in our district have the resources they need to be successful, we should also consider the wider picture. When one school wins a technology grant, another one loses. If another school in the country has a greater need for the money, they should receive it. The elementary schools shouldn’t be selfish and run for the grants unless they have a real need for the technology. Let’s face it, there are schools and districts in our country that need technology significantly more than we do. And while Smart Boards and iPads would be great, students in our district don’t need them to be successful.
