It's happening.
this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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I've opted out of the school Chromebooks for my kids because they have computers running real GNU at home. We should all be outraged that schools are pushing a locked-down surveillance/content consumption-only platform, as opposed to something like a Raspberry Pi that actually empowers kids to have real computer literacy.
This - like most problems we've created in the US - comes down to money. Google will often donate/grant Chromebooks to schools in order to create future ~~addicts~~ customers. It would cost schools a lot more to do what's right (or at least better) for their students, so they don't do that thing.
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I'm curious to know if anyone here has ever approached the school IT department to ask what steps they take to mitigate or eliminate surveillance and tracking in these devices. I know it's inherent in Google products to begin with, but do they even try? Or pretend to try? Or admit they don't care?
I did! The IT department literally laughed at me. I also tried to get them to let teachers install uBlock Origin, because they apparently will watch educational YouTube videos in class sometimes, and then get random ads for everyone to suffer under. But uBlock Origin doesn't have their support... Ironically, they only support Windows computers and iPhones on the school network. Android, MacOS, and Linux are all officially unsupported.
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The IT Department knows about all the problems it's the administration that does not care and won't let the IT people do anything. Also, you don't want to know how bad the procurement process is with most school systems.
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I’ve asked about this a few times and I was told by our administration that every company we work with signs a data privacy agreement stating that they will not sell or compromise any sensitive student data. But I was also told that our administration team doesn’t usually follow up with these companies to make sure they’re following the rules. Therefore it’s an unfortunate situation of, “above my pay grade.” Also, when opting out of a Chromebook, you’re only making sure your kid doesn’t go home with one. Most, if not all, teachers don’t shy away from Google Classroom…
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My first year teaching I was encouraged to do everything on the chromebooks, because the district wanted to save on printing costs.
If you have 100+ students, and are limited to 500 pages/month (I could print 500 more, but had to purchase my own paper…), you have to use the laptops.
Also, when parents and students increasingly treat attendance as a suggestion, keeping up with paper assignments is hellish. There were days I showed up with 1/3 or more of my class missing - with online class work, I at least could say “the work is available online.”
The technology is a problem, but it’s a problem that’s arisen because class sizes are out of control and admin has zero idea what is going on in the classroom. It’s a bandage that’s been left on so long the skin is starting to get infected around it.
What the fuck is it with schools being stingy with printed paper. At scale its less than a cent a sheet
They also have to be paying for the software that tracks how many prints you use. It’s fucking stupid, and it’s just one of a million little ways that they make sure to punish anyone stupid enough to teach.
I ended up buying my own printer. Printing alone got me to the maximum $300 of classroom expenses I was allowed to write off on taxes.
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said she was only allowed under state law to opt the children out of standardized testing and sexual health lessons,
WTF? Why the fuck can someone opt kids out of EITHER of these things?
Christians. They deserve special treatment, because they are all special.
There's an argument to be made against standardized testing. Very neurodivergent individuals, for example, can suffer a lot under bad standardized tests. Idk, though, it would be better to just make a better system, rather than letting people opt out. As long as that's not happening, there is, however, an argument against standardized tests.
Well the latter is pretty easy, it's easier to sexually molest children that haven't gone through sex education.
I think this heavily depends. Sex education for a lot of places, especially in rural areas, tends to be fucked up backwards and downright harmful. Last I checked several states have abstinence only sex ed and do things like show kids a bunch of pictures of STDs and leverage scare tatics to deter them from having sex. I think opting out of that shit show and having a candid conversation with your kid about sex is probably the ethical thing to do in those places.
We all need to do this. I'd be raising hell if my kid were in school these days. He graduated in 2016, just before things got REALLY bad.
I read /r/teachers, and I'm shocked that kids are being passed up through the grades who can barely read, and can't focus on anything at all for more than one minute. They're allowed to eat in class? Look at their phones? They get up and wander around, and even leave the classroom? WTF?
"Sit down! Shut up! Put the damn phone away and pay attention!", is what I'd say right before I was fired from being a teacher, I suppose.
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From the article:
She also started a parent group with 75 members that’s asking the district to allow students to keep Chromebooks at school rather than take them home.
Seems like such a good idea to leave that at the school. I had a relative who was a teacher, she rarely ever assigned homework. She always said it was her job to teach them in those 6 hours, and the rest of the day was theirs. She did have a weekend workshop for kids that needed tutoring, and after class hours, but in general, leave school at school and be a kid.
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That's the one good side effect of AI, it makes people want to move away from technology where it's not really necessary
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