Dive Brief:

• A former Los Angeles schools superintendent has written a letter in which he says the use of bonds to pay for the tablets is "illegal."
• William J. Johnston says the life of an iPad is several years, whereas the bonds are paid off over 25 years and are meant to buy property and provide "lasting equipment" to schools.
• Los Angeles officials maintain that bonds are approved for funding "technology" — even technology such as iPads that are not part of a school's permanent infrastructure.

Dive Insight:

Johnston is hardly alone in his concerns. A member of the bond committee points out that his daughter's school has no lights on its athletic field and an unusable drinking fountain. Paying for iPads out of bond funds, he says, amounts to paying for "modern versions of pencil and paper."