Birmingham Board of Education and City Council approves initial pilot of 1,000 OLPC laptops

Birmingham, Alabama has been the scene of a long political fight to get OLPC laptops to local elementary school students. Announced last November, Mayor Larry Langford has been working with Birmingham City Council to secure $3.5 million dollars in funding. A compromise was reached this last February. 15,000 OLPC laptops will be purchased. $3 million will be spent to purchase the laptops and another $500,000 will be spent on technical support. A pilot program of 1,000 laptops will be deployed to determine the effectiveness of the program.

Despite the approval of City Council, the Birmingham Board of Education has balked at the offer. Several board members have expressed concerns with the program. The program was approved without consultation with the board, members said. One member asked what would come of the remaining 14,000 laptops should the pilot program be a failure. The mayor was not present at the meeting when the question was asked. Another member questioned whether the $500,000 allocated would be enough to connect the 31 schools. The system has 28,000 students enrolled. That's more students than laptops to be purchased.

Others have expressed concern that the project has not solicited competing bids or made requests for proposals. Originally, Mayor Langford proposed giving control of the project under the Birmingham Education Initiative (BEI), a short-lived authority created and appointed by the mayor. BEI has been under scrutiny under the leadership of John Katopodis who was served civil lawsuit charges by HealthSouth Corp. of money fraud. During the debate with City Council, documents of Katopodis' management of his other charity, Computer Help for Kids and other evidence had surfaced.

Katopodis allegedly gave $30,000 of charity money to Marc Anthony Donais, also known as Ryan Idol, a former gay adult-film actor.

Katopodis has since dropped all involvement with BEI stating that his work as negotiator for the project was completed.

"I am no longer involved in any way with the laptop program," Katopodis said. "My role was to secure the commitment from ... (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and One Laptop Per Child), and I did that. The organization documents were drafted by an attorney close to the City Council and I had no input into it. The ball is now squarely in the court of the City Council."

"The biggest problem will be teaching our teachers," board member April Williams said.

Only one board member voted against the pilot program.

The school plans to deploy the pilot at Glen Iris Elementary.