From Slashdot:

Teachers Need an Open Source Education: palegray.net writes “Teachers are sorely in need of an education in what open source software is, what it isn’t, and how it can benefit their students. A recent news story at the Reg discussed the case of a Texas teacher who accused those distributing Linux to students of committing criminal acts. A HeliOS blog entry exposes a “higher education” culture of apathy, lies, and fear of open source software. Things have got to improve, and that improvement needs to start with misguided teachers getting their facts straight.”

When my town was building its new high school several years ago, and I was the then IT director at a high tech company, I volunteered to set up the entire network for the school with open source software, saving the school district, and the town, perhaps millions of dollars over the long run. I was turned down. Why? Because their computer maintenance person only new Microsoft software and wouldn’t be able to handle the *nix infrastructure. Huh? How about hiring a qualified person to run the network, and making the decision based on fiscal and educational responsibility?