Teachers and secondary students in the Nampa School District will get new MacBooks next year in a move to counter the rising cost of PCs as AI data companies gobble up the supply of computer parts.
Nampa students have been using 11-inch HP Pro laptops that run on Windows, but trustees on Tuesday approved a four-year, $5.6 million lease agreement with Apple to switch to 13-inch MacBook Neos for students in grades 6-12.
For years, Apple laptops have been more expensive than PCs. But Assistant Superintendent of Operations Cortney Stauffer told the school board that has changed. He said the switch to Apple will save an estimated $1.4 million over four years. Elementary students will continue to use iPads.
“The PCs, believe it or not, are now significantly more expensive than an Apple Neo,” Stauffer said.
Nampa’s switch to Apple comes months after the Boise School District made the same move. Boise trustees in July approved a five-year, $18 million lease agreement with Apple for 22,000 devices.
“What we saw coming is a dramatic increase in prices,” Boise Director of People and Organization Services Will Goodman said.
As EdNews reported in July, Idaho school districts face soaring PC prices as AI data centers buy up computer parts.
Boise’s own Micron Technology, a large producer of computer memory and storage, announced in December that it made the “difficult decision” to exit the consumer market and sell only to AI companies to accommodate the “surge in demand” for data centers.
Gordon Howard, director of technology for Bonneville School District, told EdNews that Micron’s exit is leading to higher costs for all sorts of technology. He said the cost of Chromebooks has increased by $100 over the past year, and the cost to buy new servers for the district increased from $6,000 to $10,000 within three months.
“It’s not just Chromebooks,” Howard said. “It’s everything.”
The resale value of Chromebooks is low compared to Apple products. Bonneville in July sold 1,488 Acer Chromebooks for $5 a piece. Howard said the district usually keeps Chromebooks for seven years, but that model of Acer Chromebooks became too expensive to maintain after just four years. Screens and keyboards were breaking.
“It was just going to cost us too much to maintain them,” he said. “The breakthrough rate was just too high.”
By switching to MacBooks, Nampa hopes to avoid that issue.
The lease agreement includes 6,000 MacBook Neos for students and 650 MacBook Airs for teachers. At the end of the lease, the district will own the devices and can sell them back to Apple with a guaranteed buyback price of $120 for the Neos and $275 for the Airs.
“This is actually a wonderful opportunity for the district,” Stauffer told trustees.
Currently, students in Nampa are responsible for all damage to the PCs. Repair costs range from $50 to $120. Parents can purchase insurance for $25 a year to avoid those costs. But with the move to Apple, the district will get rid of the laptop insurance program.
The agreement with Apple includes four years of “AppleCare.” If a device needs to be repaired, Apple will fix it at no additional cost. The MacBooks will also have longer battery life, cheaper charging costs and larger hard drive capacity, according to the district.
“This Neo has really been a game changer for a lot of districts because of its price point,” Stauffer said.
Budgets are stagnant, while costs increase
In Bonneville, Howard said in his 11 years on the job the state has not increased the classroom technology budget for school districts. But costs for hardware and software have increased.
“At some point in time, you know, something has to give,” Howard said.
As the Legislature will likely have another year of “maintenance only” budgets, Howard said he thinks there will be a “real crunch” in the coming years.
“This is my prediction,” he said. “If we stay stagnant in our budgets, which I think we’re going to in the next two or three years, there’s going to be a crisis, for lack of a better word.”
