San Diego Buys 26,000 iPads For Students, Spends $15 Million

Twenty-six thousand San Diego kids are going to be pretty darn happy when school restarts this fall. Why? No, probably not because of the tests and homework, but because they will all have brand spankin’ new iPad 2s waiting for them when they start. Yep, students from grades 5-12 will be given an iPad loaded with a ton of educational apps and textbooks to be used for educational purposes (and probably the occasional lolcat).

Now for the fun part: how much will this cost the school system? Proposition “S” was given $15 million in funding, which should buy 26,000 iPad 2s after a $30 per iPad discount from Apple. This will account to roughly $10 million of the budget while the other $5 million will go towards iPad apps and support. That’s a lot of iPads.

iPads have always been a big hit in the education market because of how simple they are to deploy and use. And with more and more textbooks being ported to the iPad, students have the benefit of not having to carry a 50-pound backpack when they can just grab their iPad and go. Educational apps and interactive textbooks also keep students engaged, which drives test scores and creates happy classroom.

Source: iDownloadblog
Image Credit: khawkins04

Andrew is a geek, Apple enthusiast, blogger and coffee lover from Chicago.