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Local Schools Benefit From Microsoft Settlement

jackoconnellState Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today announced 879 local educational agencies and 7,413 schools will receive more than $25 million for technology purchases, including nearly $75 thousand for the Hart District and more than $27 thousand for the Newhall, Saugus and Sulphur Springs elementary school districts.

This is a result of a second phase of funding from a settlement agreement in 2006 of a class-action antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.


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Locally, the breakdown is as follows:

Hart District:

  • Golden Valley High School $11,506
  • West Ranch High School  $14,460
  • Sequoia Charter School $250
  • Mission View Public School $1,960
  • Canyon High School $13,010
  • Saugus High School $13,073
  • Learning Post $356
  • Hart High School $11,544
  • Bowman High School $2,646
  • Valencia High School $15,947
  • Academy of the Canyons $1,987

Newhall District:

  • J. Michael McGrath School $3,628
  • Newhall School $3,586
  • Peachland School $2,836.74
  • Wiley Canyon School $4,117

Saugus District:

  • Cedarcreek School $2,885
  • Rio Vista School $4,834

Sulphur Springs District:

  • Leona Cox School $2,985
  • Mint Canyon $2,481

The complete list of awardees is on the California Department of Education Web site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r5/etv10rfa.asp.

“This funding to help school districts purchase technology comes at a critical time when schools continue to struggle because of severe budget cuts,” O’Connell said. “Schools can use this settlement funding to help prepare students for our high-tech world by providing hardware and software, connecting more classrooms to the Internet, and providing teacher training so they can effectively use technology to support student learning.”

In 1999, 27 California consumers and businesses filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging unfair competition over the sale of certain operational and software systems. The computer technology company did not admit any wrongdoing but reached a settlement agreement in 2006 that provided $1.1 billion to California users of its software. If all the money was not claimed by individual consumers, the balance would be put into a fund called “Cy Pres” to benefit the state’s poorest schools. Cy Pres is a legal term or doctrine to fulfill, as nearly as possible, the Microsoft settlement if the name of the recipient is not known. The California Department of Education helped identify Cy Pres recipients by asking local educational agencies to apply for Education Technology K-12 Voucher Program funding.

In the first phase of Cy Pres, 1,012 local educational agencies and 6,712 schools received an initial award of $243 million. Recipients of the first phase of Cy Pres are expected to receive another substantial amount of funding next year.

Funding for the first and second phase is used in the same manner. Half of the Cy Pres awards come in the form of general purpose vouchers to reimburse school districts for the purchases of eligible computer hardware, information technology support services, professional development services for teachers, and a broad array of computer software. The other half comes in the form of specific category software vouchers that reimburse school districts for the purchase of only particular types of software.

In order to qualify for each phase of Cy Pres funding, local educational agencies had to serve a student population that included at least 40 percent of students from low-income families, or were already eligible to receive Education Technology K-12 Voucher Program funding. The amount of each voucher is estimated to be between $50 and $100 per pupil, and is dependent on how much money is left in the Cy Pres fund, and how many school districts applied for funding.

For information on the settlement agreement, Microsoft I-V Cases, J.C.C.P. No. 4106, please visit the California Department of Education Web site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/et/st/etvbkgrnd.asp. For the Education Technology K-12 Voucher Program, please visit http://www.edtechk12vp.com/.

 

Local Schools Benefit From Microsoft Settlement

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