AZ students,MS office. Help me!

[Brian Cluff]

I think the letter really needs a list of govt agencies and other large
entities that are currently using StarOffice with great success.  Otherwise
these politican type with just say... what the hell is staroffice... it must
be crap

Probably also need to stress a little more that it's prefectly legal to give
every kid in the school a copy of it to use at home, since that seems to be
a large part of the problem, and that it's also multiplatform so they wont
have a bunch of computers unable to run it either.

Brian Cluff

----- Original Message -----

> I want to wtite a letter to as many of my district reps as well as Ms.
Hull
> and anyone else I can find. Letter writing and Grammar are not my strong
> suits! If any of the Pluggers would like to help me compose this letter I
> would greatly appreciate it. I would like it to be a form letter that we
all
> can use. I have a vested interest in this topic as I am a father of three
> children two of which are in school.
>  I really want this to have substance and show the value of alternative
> Operating systems and thinking.
> My thoughts so far,
>
>  I am deeply concerned about what I have read at
> http://computerworld.com/storyba/0,4125,NAV47_STO63338,00.html
> Regarding implementing Microsoft Office in all schools for $172 million
> dollars. Not to mention that this is an ongoing expense.
> I fail to see the benifit this will provide for my Kindergarten and second
> grade students of Indian Bend Elementary. I have multiple computers in my
> home that I could to teach them to use Microsoft office. What I can't
teach
> them is music, one of the programs that they (Indian Bend students) do not
> have on a regular basis. I think the music, art and PE programs have been
> reduced to bi-weekly or less. I think the money used for the Office
rollout
> would have been better spent on the quality and variety of learnig
> experiences our students are offered.
>  There are also alternatives to Microsoft Office that are free to download
> and use such as Star Office offerd by Sun Systems at,
> http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/5.2/get/get.html
> Star Office also has the ability to run on the Linux operating system
which
> is also free to download and use on as many computers as you like.
>
>  *This is a topic I would really like to stress with the groups knowledge
and
> approval.*
>
>  I am a member of the Phoenix Linux User Group, PLUG,
> http://plug.phoenix.az.us/. Myself and other members of the group would be
> more than happy to assist and possibly even support and administer the
> installation, use and adaptation of the Linux operating system in our
schools.
>
>  Thank you,
> John Wheat
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