The U.S. Attorney has decided not to file charges following a lengthy FBI investigation into the bidding process that won Apple a contract to provide an iPad to every student, teacher and administrator in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The decision, announced Tuesday, brings to a close an infamous and far-reaching chapter in the history of the nation’s second-largest school system. The iPad project, approved in June 2013, was a flagship effort of then-Supt. John Deasy, who saw the devices as a way to help the district’s low-income families offset advantages enjoyed by more prosperous families and by school systems that served wealthier neighborhoods.
In the end, problems related to the $1.3 billion project contributed to Deasy’s resignation under pressure in October 2014. In December of that year, FBI agents raided district headquarters, carting away 20 boxes of documents.
Especially under scrutiny were personal ties and communications that Deasy and other district officials had with executives from Apple and from Pearson, the company that provided the curriculum on the devices. But no evidence has ever emerged publicly that Deasy derived any personal financial benefit from the selection of the two vendors.
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