[game_the0ry]

Recently, Kentucky had similar problems with algos and tech, but with bus routes. [1] And here I was thinking it was just an American problem.

Infuriating that children and education are being used as cash cows for the corrupt and incompetent - promise efficiency for the kids and system, deliver absolute shit for everyone, except the execs who got paid. Fucking evil.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37121138

[mavamaarten]

You see it everywhere indeed.

Where I live, schools are starting to force everyone to buy or rent specific laptops from specific companies. The less financially-abled can't buy a good second hand laptop for cheap, the ones who can pay for them are scammed by high prices and shitty hardware. The company running the show is happy though, of course.

[SenAnder]

Find the individuals who signed that contract, organize parent protests at their private homes.

[Tijdreiziger]

Please don’t encourage this. Last year, multiple Dutch politicians were threatened at their homes by protestors wielding torches, with some leaving politics out of fear for their families.

If you want to use your right to protest, do so without threatening people’s life and family.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2434583-politici-voelen-zich-onveilig...

[ryaneager]

Or, maybe if you’re a politician, don’t do actions that will cause people you represent to threaten violence against you. Just a thought.

[Tijdreiziger]

Somehow it is only a small part of the political spectrum whose voters have felt the need to resort to such actions.

Assuming you’re familiar with Dutch politics, I’m sure I don’t need to spell out which part and what percentage of Dutch voters they represent.

[jj999]

protests are meaningless if they don't disturb.

[fnordpiglet]

I don’t think it’s a good thing to frighten people because you disagree with a policy they were a part of. There are other ways than harassing individuals for their role in public service.

[SenAnder]

If you change "peaceful protest" to "frighten people" and "corrupt giveaway to private company from parents' pockets" to "public service", then your position indeed sounds very reasonable.

Ask yourself - who should they protest? It was not "teachers" that failed them, or "the school", or "the school system" - it was the specific people who made the deal that parents can only purchase computers from a single private company.

[fnordpiglet]

Showing up at peoples houses is a direct threat to them as individuals and their family. Their place of work is elsewhere. Your perception of how they do their job is just that, but it is still public service - that’s the definition of working for a public entity. If it is corrupt, then sue them. We have laws covering corruption already that don’t require intimidation by mobs.

To your continued edits: they should protest the school administration at the school administration building, or the schools, sue them in court, etc. But leave them and their families alone.

[SenAnder]

Then showing up at their workplace is a direct threat to them as workers and their colleagues. And please stop conflating "peaceful protest of the contract signers" with "angry mob accosting children". Otherwise I will conflate "laptops from specific company" with "spyware-ridden laptops that pry into children's private lives and snoop on their conversations, selling that data to advertisers, future employers, and storing it indefinitely so it may be subpoena'd by the police".

[recursive]

I guess I won't see you on the picket line then.

[fnordpiglet]

I’m happy to picket, which is generally done at the place of work. What does an angry mob yelling at their children and accosting them at home accomplish?