[corysama]

In the US TI has established a multi-decade monopoly in schools. Basically, the teachers are only familiar with specifically them, so they require student only use them, so new teachers are only familiar with them.

As a result, a new TI-85 equivalent is only trivially upgraded from what I used 25 years ago and costs exactly as much minus inflation.

[moksly]

Wow, why aren’t students using laptops?

[corysama]

In college some students use laptops for taking notes. Not so much in high school. But in both during tests, electronics are strictly regulated to prevent cheating. Teachers know how to factory reset TI calculators. So, they and only they are allowed. Also, teachers know how to instruct how to use TI calculators. So, they are sometimes even required for certain classes.

[sinni800]

Lol in Germany i was only ever allowed to use non-programmable calculators all the way through high school, college, university.