Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has spent nearly a decade and millions of dollars incorporating technology into the school day. But now parents are pushing back.
CMS wants $6 million from Mecklenburg County in its 2026-27 budget proposal for refreshing student devices. It’s not the first request of that kind: CMS has budgeted around $16 million to $20 million in county funding to update student devices over four years, beginning in 2024.
Under former Superintendent Clayton Wilcox, CMS began rolling out a one-to-one device program in 2018, meaning every student would eventually have their own Chromebook to take to and from school each day.
That became essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, as instruction moved online. By the 2021-2022 school year, 96 percent of U.S. public schools reported giving digital devices to students who needed them, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
But now parents — and one county commissioner — are questioning the role technology plays in learning.
“I recognize that the world is different than when I graduated high school, but I think that we should consider spending less money on tech,” Mecklenburg County Commissioner Leigh Altman told CMS officials at a May 13 budget meeting.