The bulk of this money, the BoE says, will come from advertisements on the machines' screens, as well as from channeled e-commerce sales, although critics say that the startup costs of the project will be hefty, to say the least.

The New York Times summed up the project by observing that the plan is so astronomical as to appear preposterous.

"How could the board, which regularly says it cannot afford to maintain schools or hire enough qualified teachers, contemplate spending $900 million over 10 years to build an educational Web site and provide portable computers, Internet service and e-mail to most of its students, teachers and administrators," said the paper.

The paper adds, however, that the BoE is looking to industry majors such as IBM, Cisco Systems, Toshiba and America Online to help out with the project, presumably with loan equipment and services at reduced or zero costs.

According to Andersen Consulting, which this week gave board members an analysis of the proposal's feasibility, the group of potential users of the board's Internet site is so valuable that major companies would be willing to lay out a large share of the start-up cost, if not all of it.

Perhaps more importantly, however, the New York Daily News says that the site could raise as much as $11 billion in revenues over 10 years, money the board could use over time to buy equipment and keep the system running.

Andersen, however, says that a $4 billion warchest is achievable over the 10-year period, making the project extremely viable - once the startup costs are funded.

In its calculations, Andersen says that AOL spends more than $280 on marketing for each new customer that signs up for its online service, meaning that acquiring 2.2 million customers - the potential audience for the NY BoE's audience - would cost AOL around $600 million.

The completed system could also be offered for sale to school districts in other large cities, so raising more revenues for the board.

The New York Times quotes Yelmanette Montgomery, a Democrat state senator from Brooklyn, as saying that her greatest concern is that in the rush to put laptops in the hands of every child, the board would expand dependency on commercial advertising to fund public education.

The New York Daily News, meanwhile, echoes Montgomery's concerns, noting that the project, which is backed by the new chancellor, Harold Levy, an ex-Citibank official, could be seen as commercializing education.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com/ .

07:41 CST
Reposted 08:18 CST