So what's up with all the laptops in the Shoreline School District?

They passed a levy a couple of years ago that pays for the laptops; it is not part of the general fund.  I don't see how that is relevant to school closures--if enrollment is falling you have to close buildings; why shouldn't the district allocate resources to technology and away from empty buildings?

 

I think the laptop idea is misguided, but it is not part of the general budget. If you don't like it, vote against the next technology levy.

I am not fond that they require the computers to be Macs as more than 80% of businesses use PCs instead.  But regardless it at least requires the students and staff to use the computers.  It gets them use to the computers so that when they come across them in the workplace they are not so afraid of them.  The other thought is that the newer generation, such as your fith grader, has a brain that is trained to learn via technology (how many TV shows or videos do your kids watch).  The computer helps those children learn the material better than reading a text book or doing a story board type project on poster board.
Parents do have to pay to rent the computers or provide their own so I don't think that it is really costing the school district money that could be used elsewhere.  I think we need to look at other costs that are eating the school district budget.  Things you might not think about, gasoline for all those busses, maintenance on the buses and other vehicles in the district, and how about all the levels of management?  Then there are the costs for students that can't read very well because their parents do not step up and help them.  Or the students that are not native English speakers, or the students that have learning disabilities and again the parents do not help out.  The district has to educate all the students and any student with special needs costs thousands more each year than other students with no extra help from the State.  The district receives the same amount per student for all students, so any student that cost more money drains the budget and deprives other programs.
Every solution has an equal problem.  There is not a eutopian education system.  You could always move to another country where the students are put in "tracks" based on their interests and abilities, but the education is free through college.  Oh, but on the other hand you would be paying 40% or more in income taxes.  I am assuming that since you are in the Shoreline school district that you are not in the 40% tax bracket, and since the highest tax bracket in the US is 35% (you have to earn almost $373,000 per year to get into this tax bracket).
We need to also look at the results.  The Shoreline School District is a highly productive school district (test scores and students that go to college).  See this link http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?groupLevel=District&schoolId=115&reportLevel=District&orgLinkId=115&yrs=&year=2007-08.  Plus living in an area with good schools means the real estate prices do better than the other areas.  Our real estate prices have not gone down as much as other areas (in fact my real estate taxes have gone up every year and my assessed value has as well, when friends of mine have been bragging about their taxes going down because their assessed value has decreased).  So if I wanted to move out of the district, I could make a pretty good deal with selling my house for a slightly smaller profit than I could have two years ago, but I would be able to purchase a home for nearly 50% in other areas (I can send you examples of homes that sold for a million dollars or more in the last few years and are now listed for 50% of that value, in fact I just saw one that was listed for $12,000,000 and is fairly new construction, almost 10,000 square feet with waterfront on Lake Washington and is now listed for $3,000,000).
I think we have a great community and have great schools.  I am happy that our schools are trying to advance the student learning with the use of modern technology and am willing to pay more in taxes to create that in our schools, even if I don't have a student in the schools (mine has three more years now, but was in private schools for the first eight years).
Do you volunteer at the schools?  That would help them out a great deal or even better yet, organize other parents to volunteer to help out the budget at the school and then spread the program to the other schools.