Linux in Schools

[MBSmith at dstsystems.com]

My brother-in-law is the CFO of North Kansas City School District, and 
after giving him a quick run down in the Linux state of affairs, he 
responded with the following:

quote
I talked with our IT Director about your questions and received the 
following response:

Primary reasons:

1) Most of the software products we purchase for education are developed 
for Microsoft and Novell. (NCS, Alice, Versatrans, Boss Horizon, CCC, 
Paws, etc)

2) Our students need to be exposed to microsoft as it is the primary 
operating system utilized in businesses.

3) Most employees we hire from the outside have Microsoft and Novell 
experiences already.

You maybe able to give us some new ideas on the uses of Linux.  Anytime 
you have any info just let me know.  See you 
soon.............Thanks...............Paul Harrell
end quote

I think I'll work on him from a $$ aspect, and give him some solid case 
info where it's helped organisations.  I have to start somewhere....

For the record, here's what I asked him;
quote
[intro snipped]
Through KCLUG email 'chatting', the question of Linux in schools has been 
raised, and I was wondering if you are aware if this alternative has ever 
been discussed for use in the school system?  While it may be impractical 
to remove all exposure to Windows from students right now, seeing as it's 
the current primary business environment, this will certainly be less of 
an issue in future, and exposing them to Linux now will give them a head 
start.  Also, migrating to a Linux administration infrustructure will 
certainly influence the operating bottom line - as quite a few government 
agencies throughout the world are discovering, throwing off the Microsoft 
licensing burden (shackles) and defining your own upgrade path and 
schedules can be very liberating.  This may be something your IT people 
have already discussed with you, but I warn you - if they're Microsoft 
lackeys, they'll be scared of Linux for no other reason than they don't 
know what it's like to let go of MS's apron strings.

End of spiel, here's a few links for reference:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/23413.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/23667.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/23470.html
end quote

"Aaron" <aaron at aarons.net>
Sent by: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net
02/26/2002 11:20 PM

 
        To:     "Kclug" <kclug at kclug.org>
        cc: 
        Subject:        Re: Linux in Schools

Call the North Kansas City School District and ask for Jerry Delgato. Tell
him I told you to call and he'll be more then happy to talk to you about
anything and everything.

Aaron Wendel

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Gene Dascher [mailto:gedascher at multiservice.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 11:03 AM
> > To: Kclug
> > Subject: Linux in Schools
> >
> >
> > Are any of you involved in Linux advocacy with any of the KC
> > area school
> > districts?  I'd be interested to get some information about
> > how to introduce
> > the subject to a school district and help implement a
> > solution, if possible.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Gene
> >