Of course, it was the economy article that caught me. While some are arguing about what cars to buy, the rest of us are just happy to have transportation. Some of the key points are as follows:

• The state’s fiscal problems are so great that states might have to make additional deep budget cuts and tax increases in 2010.
• States will take steps to eliminate deficits for the 2011 fiscal year that, according to the report, “will likely take nearly a full percentage point off the GDP. That, in turn, could cost the economy 900,000 jobs next year.” (I’m trembling in my chair…I hate to think of myself, my team being unemployed in these hard times).
• ARRA helped states close to 30 to 40 percent of budget gaps this year. But that funding is expected to be depleted by December 31, 2010 and market analysts anticipate large state deficits to persist for another 2-3 years.
• The current recesssion, in which there have been unprecedented drops in state revenue, could have an even longer recovery period.
• Typically, public education has been more or less protected during a recession, because government leaders have been loathe to make cuts to education budgets. Now, however, most states have had to cut public education funding, and some have made very deep cuts.
• Reductions in general investments, teacher layoffs–all the things you need to really grow the economy, we’ve cut and thats not going to come back any time soon.

You can find more funding info from eSchoolNews at http://www.eschoolnews.com/Funding

Now, let’s consider this information. Sure, it’s not the best of news and there are hopeful signs. But the question remains, why do school districts continue to continue to buy, buy, buy like there’s a rich zillionaire uncle slipping them cash? Isn’t it time we took a long hard look at the software we’re spending money on, and switched to free software?

Let’s consider the approach of this school…let’s not wait for economic intervention to make the changes we should have made previously:

Greater Houlton Christian Academy (www.ghca.com) is a private school in Maine, and thus d’es not have access to state or federal funding. This meant that financing a new computer lab would be an incredible challenge. As the system administrator, I not only had to consider the cost of upgrading our hardware, but the cost of upgrading our software as well. It soon became obvious that the price of new software was just as much as, if not more than, hardware products…..

As our school boldly embraces technology, we’re transitioning to more modern ways of collecting and grading work. For example, many teachers are allowing, even encouraging, students to email them their reports or other work that would normally be printed on paper. This greatly reduces waste, ink and toner expenses, and clutter.

To ensure our teachers can read these reports, they need to be sent in a format that is widely accepted. Microsoft Office documents (.doc,.xls,.ppt) are all readable here, as are OpenOffice (.odt,.ods,.odc) files. More obscure formats, like those created by Microsoft Works and WordPerfect are not. However, even this products allow you to Save As and select a compatible format. You should also avoid zipping (.zip) these files unless otherwise instructed.

For those lacking a solid office suit (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.), please consider OpenOffice.org which is a free download at that web address. Also consider Google Docs, which is a free online office suit that allows you to share your work directly with your teacher!
Source: Making the Switch to Open Source Apps (2003) and Greater Houlton Christian Academy (2010)