Is this what you want the stimulus spent on?

Greetings all,
Long time reader first time poster so bear with me. I was watching my local news here in michigan home of the 10 year recession when they started a segment on some ideas on how to spend our share of the porkulus bill. and what did one of our local school systems want? Brand new ipod touches for their teachers!!

District wants ipods for teachers

The Jenison district's wish-list for federal stimulus money envisioned every teacher having an iPod touch. At $229 each, that would add up to almost $69,000.

Now i know that $69000 is comparable to 1 drop of water in an olympic sized pool as far as the stimulus bill is concerned but i dont see the benefit. Maybe it could be spent on something that benefits the students, like books, supplies etc.? Do we really want teachers playing games while they should be "educating" the children.

One of their arguments is that it would replace their aging computers in the classroom but as far as i know ipods cant run programs, create word documents or things like that.

I just think if obama is really committed to bankrupt our childrens, childrens children, the money should be spent on smart items. Not perks for the already bloated teachers unions. what does everyone think?

It beats simply shoveling the money into the black hole of the banking system. At least the retailer gets its share, Apple gets its share, and the teachers get sweet new Ipods. God forbid that teachers get any sort of bonuses. They should just go on with their thankless, underpaid jobs, and be glad they aren't unemployed.

And Ipod touch can be used for lots of things besides just music and games. They can be used as organizers, can run most of the Iphone apps, and can be used for internet and email etc.

i see your point but i dont see how this will help the kids in classroom? i dont think teacher creature comforts should be on the top of the educational system needs list. can the touch produce word documents? can it use excel to input grades or keep track of student progress? name one thing the touch does that would directly benefit the students.