US faces back-to-school laptop shortage

SAN FRANCISCO – Schools across the United States are facing shortages and long delays, up to several months, to get this year’s most crucial back-to-school supplies: laptops and other equipment needed for the online learning, according to an Associated Press survey.

The world’s three largest IT companies, Lenovo, HP and Dell, have told school districts nearly 5 million laptops are short, in some cases exacerbated by Trump administration sanctions on Chinese suppliers .

As the school year virtually begins in many places because of the coronavirus, educators across the country fear computer shortages will worsen inequalities – and headaches for students, families and teachers.

“It will be like asking an artist to paint a picture without paint. You can’t let a kid do distance learning without a computer, ”said Tom Baumgarten, superintendent of the Morongo County School District in California’s Mojave Desert, where all 8,000 students are entitled to a free lunch and most need computers for distance learning.

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Baumgarten ordered 5,000 HP laptops in July and was told they would arrive in time for the first day of school on August 26. The delivery date then changed to September and then October. The neighborhood has around 4,000 old laptops that can serve about half of the students, but what about the rest, Baumgarten asks rhetorically. “I’m very worried that I won’t be able to provide everyone with a computer.”

Chromebooks and other low-cost PCs are the PC of choice for most budget schools. Delays began in the spring and intensified due to high demand and supply chain disruptions, the same reasons toilet paper and other pandemic essentials have been flying off the shelves few months ago. Then came the Trump administration’s July 20 announcement targeting Chinese companies it said were involved in forced labor or other human rights abuses. The Commerce Department has imposed sanctions on 11 Chinese companies, including the maker of several laptop models Lenovo, which the company says will add several weeks to existing delays, according to a letter Lenovo sent to customers.

School districts are imploring the Trump administration to fix the problem, saying distance learning without a laptop will mean no learning for some of the country’s most vulnerable students.

“It’s difficult because I don’t tolerate child slave labor for computers, but can’t we hurt more children in the process? said Matt Bartenhagen, IT director of Williston Public Schools in North Dakota. The district has been informed that its order for 2,000 Lenovo Chromebooks will “hopefully” arrive in the fourth quarter.

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There is no nationwide tally of how many laptops and other devices schools are waiting for, but shortages and backorders are plaguing school districts in more than 15 states, interviews show with school districts across the country, vendors, IT companies, and industry analysts. .

A recent survey of California’s 1,100 districts showed that schools in the state are waiting at least 300,000 computers overdue, said Mary Nicely, senior policy adviser to the state chief executive.

The Denver Public School District, Colorado’s largest, expects 12,500 Lenovo Chromebooks to order in April and May. The neighborhood scrambled to find machines and made do with whatever was available. Yet when school starts on Wednesday, they will be short of around 3,000 devices, says Lara Hussain, district IT director.

Lenovo had informed Denver and other customers months ago of the delays in the supply chain. At the end of July, Lenovo sent a letter saying that Commerce’s “trade controls” would trigger a further downturn. The letter lists 23 Lenovo models manufactured by their Chinese supplier, Hefei Bitland Information Technology Co. Ltd.

“As of now, we no longer manufacture these devices at Bitland,” the letter said, adding that Lenovo is shifting production to other locations.

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A Lenovo official told the California Department of Education that the company has a backlog of more than 3 million Chromebooks, said Daniel Thigpen, the department spokesperson.

Lenovo declined to answer repeated questions from AP asking for confirmation of the backlog and details of the number of delayed devices.

The Commerce Ministry said it has added Hefei Bitland to its so-called list of entities, which restricts the export and transfer of items into the country by sanctioned companies. “This does not apply to the import of Chromebooks from China,” the department said in a statement, however adding that “we should all agree that American schoolchildren should not use computers from China. produced from forced labor. “

Tom Quiambao, IT director for Tracy Unified School District in Northern California, said he and his supplier contacted HP to ask why his order for 10,000 HP laptops in July would take three months. He was told, “HP is running out of 1.7 million notebook computer units” due to production shortages in a variety of components made in China, Quiambao said.

An HP spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny the figure, saying simply that “we continue to leverage our global supply chain to meet the changing needs of our customers.”

Dell offered an equally opaque response to detailed questions about a backlog.

“We cannot comment specifically on demand and supply,” Dell said in an emailed statement, adding that the company is seeing an increase in orders due to virtual learning and is trying to “process orders as well. efficiently as possible ”.

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