Is Spending for Classroom Hardware Short-Changing Materials Spending?

Given the limited budgetary resources of many public districts and schools, it has been speculated that increased spending for classroom hardware may be depressing spending on traditional instructional materials.

In a large-scale survey conducted for a January 2017 report, Deployment of Display Technologies in K-12 Schools 2017, Simba Information posed that question to surveyed K-12 educators.

A majority of survey respondents, 55.6%, said that at times they divert funds away from instructional materials in order to keep up with their buying and maintenance of classroom technology. The remaining 44.4% claimed that they have adequate resources for both classroom technology and traditional kinds of instructional materials.

Districts that are playing catch-up, trying to become technology-rich, find themselves far more likely to divert funds compared to those who are already technology-rich.

In terms of geographic regions, the Southeast and the Southwest were above average in admitting to diverting funds away from traditional kinds of instructional materials.

Deployment of Display Technologies in K-12 Schools 2017 also provides data on how many display devices, including interactive whiteboards, digital projectors and digital media players, are in use in schools, what brands of those devices are most popular, and what funding sources are tapped to make those technology purchases.