As of Wednesday, August 27th, each and every City High student was given a new chromebook to replace their old one. For most students, this was a much-needed upgrade. But for me, it felt a little unnecessary.

I do think that it is fantastic that we were given new chromebooks. The computer itself is an improvement. They have HDMI ports. The touchscreen is much sleeker and easier to use. The computer is smaller and less heavy, making it easier to carry around, and that last fact might not be significant to you, but when you have a backpack as heavy as mine, every little thing counts. They even look better, sleeker, and more advanced. The real only downside from these new chromebooks to the old ones is that the keyboard is slightly smaller and the keys a little too close together. But back to my point. I don’t know how your old chromebooks were shaping up after who-even-knows-how-many years of use; mine only had two; but my chromebook, my sister’s, and my brother’s were all in pretty good shape. A quick analysis of other students’ chromebooks would give you mixed results on how well they were maintained. So did we really need new computers?

Don’t get me wrong; I understand the need for an upgrade every once in a while. But if something isn’t broken, why should we try to fix it? How much money did we use to buy these new computers? This is district wide. That means that, if we assume that every chromebook the school bought it about 40 dollars (the price of the older chromebooks), and we distribute that to about 1200 kids per grade, district wide, we get, after the annoying math problem 1200 x 12 x 40, a grand total of 576,000 dollars. That’s about half a million dollars, in other words, more than some of us will be making after 10 years. And I understand that there can be contracts and outdated technology, but just think of what could be done with that money.

Even if we accept the monetary costs, what about the environmental ones? (And yes, I know, I say these things a lot) I’m sure that some of the pieces are salvaged and recycled, but how many are just thrown into the dumpster? That’s pieces from 14400 chromebooks all in one place.  Every five years. That’s a lot of trash. A lot of trash that doesn’t decompose easily. So at the same time that we’re enjoying our new, techy computers, our old ones are releasing chemicals into the environment as they slowly decompose. Good. Good for our conscience.

All that aside, I do understand that this is not an easy decision to make. It’s not like chromebooks are high quality. They’re not going to last years and years. And then you have to consider contracts the school has with these companies, and the usefulness of computers. And I get it. We do need these chromebooks. But I still feel that being aware of exactly what happens when we get these new chromebooks is important. Maybe now, we’ll take better care of them. Make them last those five years. Just something to think about.