As a result of a class action lawsuit against the Microsoft
Corporation, educators now have access to critical funding
for educational technology including both hardware and
software. To date, 18 states and the District of Columbia
have reached proposed settlements totaling over 2.5 billion
dollars. In nearly every state, 50% of the unclaimed funds
have been earmarked for school districts.
Although each state is handling the distribution of these
funds differently, the majority of state agencies are
providing districts with both a general purpose and software
voucher to use towards approved purchases. While the definitions
of vouchers may vary from state to state, in general they
are as follows.
General Purpose Vouchers
may be used for qualifying hardware purchases. This includes
personal computers, laptop computers, Tablet PCs and Apple
Macintosh computers. If the total amount of your voucher(s)
is less than $950, you may also redeem your voucher(s)
for the purchase of printers, monitors, scanners, keyboards,
mice and other pointing devices. If the total amount of
your voucher(s) is $950 or more, you may redeem your voucher(s)
for the purchase of printers, monitors, scanners, keyboards,
mice and other pointing devices only in connection with
the purchase of a computer.
Software Vouchers may
be used to purchase qualifying software which includes
any software title, including titles not published by
Microsoft, which is available for sale to the general
public in standard form and is capable of running on any
Qualifying Hardware (see above).




