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Comment by dkarapetyan | Hacker News Reader

I also think it is kinda backwards that a for-profit corporation is subsidizing public education. This is a symptom of a broken system and instead of praising Google we should fix what is broken about the system. This also creates an interesting precedent if it sticks. Are parents going to beg Google to prop up their schools now?

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This isn't even remotely new. Apple and windows have been doing the same ever since computers were in schools. Heck, I even got free oem copies of Vista and 7, and Ms word through my school (University) which were provided to the school well below what the normal prices were.

The fact that Google is providing a subjectively better alternative isn't remotely new, but if it works better and see lower cost to schools, I'm more than happy to see it happen.

I didn't say anything about it being new.

a for-profit corporation is subsidizing public education

You think this is altruism? It's getting kids hooked early. Everything Google does is about getting more eyeballs on more ads, never forget that.

You misunderstood me. I agree it is not altruism and that is why I think for-profit corporate entities must be kept out of education. Their values and motives are misaligned.

> we should fix what is broken about the system

Who is we? The state? I don't trust the state to be able to fix this. Remember the launch of healthcare.gov? Google employees had to step in to fix it to make it usable.

Why do you automatically couple the collective noun to the state? I didn't say government bureaucrats should fix the problem for specific reasons. The world is more than just corporations and state sponsored entities. "We" means regular people, parents, teachers, community organizers, etc.

'We' could roll our own Linux distro, work out deals with manufacturers to provide some form factor useable by children to run our distro on, set up a massive cloud to orchestrate all these devices in such a way that they are useful to children and teachers without being a huge pain in the ass.

But I don't feel like it.

This should be a tell that education has value and the government is underinvesting.

You're probably right, but it could just as easily be a tell that education has monetary value, and more invested would only get captured by organizations seeking to make a profit.

Yes. Educating children is the most profitable "startup" investment ever.

Practically guaranteed returns. Just teaching a child to read is probably more than break-even for every education dollar spent on the child.

It makes time traveling to get in on the ground floor of Facebook, Google, and Apple look like investing in treasury bonds.

Are Chromebooks subsidized? Maybe they're just cheaper.

Pretty sure they're subsidized. Plenty of products given to educators are subsidized. That in and of itself is not bad or wrong. It's when we put things in the proper context and ask how exactly does Google benefit from this that things take a wrong turn. I don't see how any positive spin for why Google is doing this actually holds up.

CB are not subsidized and schools pay for Google software recurring per kid.

Even if the Chromebooks aren't subsidized, Google Apps for Education is free to use which amounts to some kind of subsidy.

Google Classroom is not free and schools pay per recurring per kid.

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