Laptop shortage
US schools’ tech woe
Schools across the United States are facing shortages and long delays, of up to several months, in getting this year’s most crucial supplies: the laptops and other equipment needed for online learning, an Associated Press investigation has found.
The world’s three biggest computer companies, Lenovo, HP and Dell, have told school districts they have a shortage of nearly 5 million laptops, in some cases exacerbated by Trump administration sanctions on Chinese suppliers, according to interviews with over two dozen US schools, districts in 15 states, suppliers, computer companies and industry analysts.
As the school year begins virtually in many places because of the coronavirus, educators nationwide worry that computer shortfalls will compound the inequities — and the headaches for students, families and teachers.
“This is going to be like asking an artist to paint a picture without paint,” said Tom Baumgarten, superintendent of the Morongo Unified School District in California’s Mojave desert, where all 8,000 students qualify for free lunch and most need computers for distance learning. “You can’t have a kid do distance learning without a computer.”
Baumgarten was set to order 5,000 Lenovo Chromebooks in July when his vendor called him off, saying Lenovos were getting
“stopped by a government agency because of a component from China that’s not allowed here,” he said. He switched to HPs and was told they would arrive in time for the first day of school, Aug. 26. The delivery date then changed to September, then October. The district has about 4,000 old laptops that can serve roughly half of students, but what about the rest, Baumgarten asks rhetorically. “I’m very concerned that I’m not going to be able to get everyone a computer.”
Chromebooks and other low-cost PCs are the computers of choice for most budgetstrapped schools. The delays started in the spring and intensified because of high demand and disruptions of supply chains, the same reasons that toilet paper and other pandemic necessities flew off shelves a few months ago.
Then came the Trump administration’s July 20 announcement targeting Chinese companies it says were implicated in forced labor or other human-rights abuses against a Muslim minority population, the Uighurs.
The Commerce Department imposed sanctions on 11 Chinese companies, including the manufacturer of multiple models of Lenovo laptops, which the company says will add several weeks to existing delays, according to a letter Lenovo sent to customers.
School districts nationwide are pleading with the Trump administration to resolve the issue.