First-Year Community College Students In LA Will Get Free Laptops

[Bayard]

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — First-time community college students will not only get free tuition, but also free laptops under a new program under the LA College Promise.

The “Connect to Success” program will distribute free, refurbished laptops to ever first-year students under the LA College Promise. The program’s goal is to help fully prepare and empower young people city officials hope will ultimately contribute to the local community and economy.

“Our job is to knock down any hurdles standing between our students and their dreams – and that means sparing them the expense of a tuition bill, connecting them to the classroom on public transit, and giving them a reliable computer to do homework, make their grades and prepare for the future,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement.


Last month, the city made it free for all LAUSD students to ride the DASH bus to school and the state expanded free community college tuition from one to two years for all first-time California students.

The laptops are provided by human-I-T, a nonprofit that focuses on bridging the digital divide, with help from philanthropic donors like the Annenberg Foundation.

About 6,000 students in the Los Angeles Community College District will have access to the free laptops.

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/09/25/free-laptops-community-college-students-los-angeles/

video at site

[Iliyah]

1. 9th graders at Lawndale High School too.

[Duppers]

2. Wow!! Excellent steps to help lift folks out of poverty!

Next step is providing affordable internet - the lack of which holds back many communities across the country, especially rural ones.

Chattanooga provides an excellent example that should be instituted across the country:

http://www.chattanooga.gov/it/nooganet/nooga-net-guest-wifi-access


But greedy corporate telecoms will prevent this from happening.

[dem in texas]

3. Dallas County, Texas

Offers free tuition for any student who graduates from a Dallas County high school. They can attend any of the Dallas, County community college campuses and Dallas has one of the best community college systems in the US.

[Initech]

4. What's the catch though?

This is definitely a great idea but I'm so skeptical about tech to know not to look a gift horse in the mouth that easily.

[hunter]

5. Students get free laptops in our high schools.

The catch is Google.

Google has owned their smart phones for a long time so we've already gone down that rabbit hole.

[Initech]

6. Are they restrictive in what you can browse on the internet though?

Also can they turn on things like the web cam at any time? That's the thing I would like to know.

[hunter]

8. I suppose you can ask Google yourself...

Guardian’s Guide to Chromebooks (pdf)

https://edu.google.com/products/chromebooks/

https://edu.google.com/why-google/privacy-security/

Hi Google! I'm behaving myself. No, really, I am!

[ChubbyStar]

7. FANTASTIC!

I think many people just do not understand that so many poor college kids can NOT afford laptops. One must have computer access to even be on a level playing field. A laptop is essential.