LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- A California lawmaker proposes barring school districts from using voter-approved, long-term construction bonds for things like iPads for students.
The bill introduced Friday is aimed at the Los Angeles Unified School District's $1 billion plan to buy all its students iPads, a project started last year that uses school construction bonds to be paid back over the next 25 years, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The author of the bill, Republican Assemblyman Curt Hagman, has been outspoken in his opposition to the school district's iPad project.
"It is important that construction bond money be used for school facilities, and not for things like iPads," Hagman said.
Hagman's bill would ban districts from purchasing "instructional materials" with construction bonds, including "textbooks, technology-based materials and other non-facility related items with a short usable life."
Districts should use money allocated from the state for technology and learning materials, not construction bonds, Hagman said.
"That's what they should be buying this stuff with -- not long-term debt money," he said.
Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy had not commented on the bill.
