CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Most North Carolina public schools say they don’t have the money to replace laptops issued to students in recent years — a scenario that could leave hundreds of thousands students without computers if they break down, an analysis of state data obtained by WRAL News shows.
Many of the machines were purchased using federal stimulus dollars issued during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Without new funding, the boom in laptop purchases that turned nearly every school into a “one-to-one school” — one device per student — would be a blip in time.