Dive Brief:

• The Idaho Legislature’s Office of Performance Evaluations has released a new report with some devastating findings: the state mismanaged and ultimately wasted $61 million on the rollout of a Pearson management system, Schoolnet.
• The report doesn't look good for former state schools superintendent Tom Luna, who, the report says, pushed Schoolnet into Idaho schools despite multiple warnings that the Pearson product wouldn't work.
• Current state Superintendent Sherri Ybarra has told legislators that while the report is correct, it reflects the old regime. “It was not us. It was the previous administration," Ybarra's assistant told lawmakers. "Superintendent Ybarra did not create that problem, but Superintendent Ybarra is going to be about fixing that problem."

Dive Insight:

And it's not just $61 million wasted by the state on the Schoolnet: The J.A. & Kathryn Albertson Foundation donated $21 million for the system's rollout , as it was under the banner of Luna's school reform program “Students Come First."

A big issue with the Schoolnet rollout was that Luna tried to push it out on a statewide level, even though the tool was developed for a much smaller district-wide usage.

While the rollout of Schoolnet is different from the case of Buzz in Detroit, it's hard not to see continuities between the questionable push for certain technologies within schools.

In the case of Buzz, the never-before used product was being tested within the Detroit district to get feedback before it was then marketed to other districts.  A local paper, MetroTimes, did a massive investigation into the use of Buzz and found, through Freedom of Information Act Requests, that everyone at the top levels was well aware that the software was riddled with bugs and a headache for teachers and students to use, yet they continued pushing it into the classroom.

The case can also be tied back to the bungled iPad rollout in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where it has recently come to light that then-superintendent John Deasy may have had connections to either Apple or Pearson, who were both involved in the deal.