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April 7, 2020

Such a deal: Partnership for CT to buy 60K Dell laptops for $24M

PHOTO | New Haven BIZ Partnership for CT’s Clemons: Shift to online learning during coronavirus crisis places lower-income students at a learning disadvantage.
By Michael C. Bingham

The board of directors of the Partnership for Connecticut Tuesday morning approved the purchase of laptops for 60,000 disadvantaged high school students in Connecticut, advancing the public-private Partnership’s objective of improving access to education.

“The shift to online learning due to the COVID-19 public-health crisis is difficult for teachers and families all over Connecticut, but it is especially challenging for students who do not have access to the resources they need,” said Partnership Board Chair Erik Clemons.

The laptop device being purchased is Dell’s Latitude 3190 Education 2-in-1, in wide use by high school students and school districts nationwide and with a useful life expectancy of about five years. This model includes 4 GB of system memory and 128 GB of storage capacity.  

Each device purchased from Dell will cost $396.54, a discount of 62.82 percent off list price, for a total of $23,760,818.28.

The laptops are intended for students in “Alliance” districts, identified as the 33 lowest-performing public-school districts in Connecticut.

According to the Partnership, the laptops are scheduled to arrive in three tranches: 15,000 in May, 30,000 in June, and 15,000 in July of this year.

“As a teacher from one of the Alliance Districts, I know what a big difference these devices are going to make for high school students,” said Sheena Graham, a teacher at Bridgeport’s Harding High School and a Partnership board member. “For many students and their families, the purchase of a laptop is simply out of reach, making it even more difficult for them to stay engaged in learning. This new tool will really help, not only in the immediate crisis but for years to come.”

Founded with a $100 million gift from Greenwich billionaire Ray Dalio and matched by $100 million in state funding approved by the legislature last spring, the Partnership for Connecticut is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established to help “disengaged and disconnected” young people (ages 14 to 24) in Connecticut access educational and career opportunities.

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