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Via The Los Angeles Times | By Karin Klein

There was a lot to dislike about the proposal to buy $500 million worth of iPads for Los Angeles Unified School District students (plus $800 million for the necessary broadband at schools): The price, the incomplete curriculum, the paucity of serious questions about whether all of these devices were necessary, the failure to plan for obvious things that could go wrong. But the news this week that it’s now the subject of a federal grand jury investigation, with 20 cartons of materials seized by the FBI, was a big surprise.

But possibly a good surprise, in its way. Though L.A. Unified’s own inspector general is also conducting his second inquiry into the iPad purchase—this time into the emails among former Supt. John Deasy, his deputy Jaime Aquino and representatives of Apple and Pearson, which at first appeared to be the early and only winners of the technology contract—there’s reason for the public to lack confidence in the district’s ability to investigate its technological missteps.

To read the full commentary, click here.