LAUSD's iPad program (2013-2015)
LAUSD approved a $1.3 billion deal to give every student an iPad loaded with Pearson's Common Core curriculum, the largest K-12 technology procurement of its kind. The devices malfunctioned, the curriculum stalled, and then-board member Bennett Kayser called it 'a monumental con' as the FBI subpoenaed procurement records.
The board halted the program and opened bidding to other vendors, and the district ultimately abandoned the initiative.
The FBI probe and failure made LAUSD wary of big-bet technology rollouts and shaped its cautious posture toward AI.
It is the district's defining cautionary tale about adopting classroom technology at scale, the backdrop to its 2026 decision to pause AI.
