Why a Texas School District Just Pivoted Hard to the MacBook Neo
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Apple may have hiked the price of its budget-friendly MacBook Neo, but the educational market is still apparently gobbling up Apple’s latest entry-level laptop.
It probably helps that the tide is rising for everyone as memory prices soar. Chromebooks aren’t exactly getting any cheaper either, and it looks like that’s created enough of a sticker shock for one Texas school district to decide it’s time for a pivot.
According to Beaumont Enterprise (via AppleInsider), the board for the Beaumont Independent School District has decided its money is better given to Apple. It’s just approved a four-year lease for around $11.19 million to replace its aging computing devices, and they’re going to be swapped out for iPads and MacBooks.
The plan is to acquire 14,585 Apple devices for both teachers and students, from pre-K through 12th grade. The total cost will be spread out evenly over the four years, working out to around $2.8 million annually.
Like many large organizations, the primary force driving the change is the fact that it’s becoming cost-prohibitive to keep the existing, older hardware up and running. According to the report, the district spent nearly half a million dollars in support costs for the 2025–26 school year alone:
The district reported $469,576 in device support costs: $212,574 for repairs since January 2025, $220,040 for information technology staff time during the 2025-26 school year and $36,962 in overtime for device repair and support.
“It’s almost half a million dollars just supporting a fleet that is barely moving or working,” said Rachel Harrah, the district’s deputy superintendent of organizational effectiveness.
Anyone who has ever worked with Chromebooks knows they don’t age particularly well, and yet the average age of the Chromebooks in Beaumont’s fleet is five years old. Harrah notes that 7,302 devices are in a state where they’re unavailable for student use. Parts are also getting more expensive.
In addition to Apple hardware being widely regarded as more reliable and delivering greater longevity, the district also recognizes the fact that Chromebooks aren’t really equipping their students for the real world.
“There is not one environment in the workplace that uses a Chromebook,” Harrah said. “When we’re thinking about Chromebooks being accessible inside the workplace, that tells you what we’re teaching inside of the schools directly connects to who they are going to be and the skills they’re going to have when they leave us and graduate and enter our workforce.”
Of course, the board did its due diligence and considered all the options, evaluating the cost per device, residual value, and buyback options, as well as repair and warranty coverage. For students in third through 12th grades, they compared the MacBook Neo with Lenovo and Asus models. While all three would have met students’ needs, the Lenovo and Asus models had higher costs over four years, and the district was concerned “the Asus model’s plastic parts would require more repairs.”
The district was able to get better financing terms from Apple, and Harrah’s recommendation was that it lease 4,085 iPads for younger students — pre-K through second grade — and 9,500 MacBook Neo laptops for students in grades 3 through 12, plus 1,000 more MacBook Neo laptops for teachers.
According to Harrah, the MacBook Neo “offered the strongest performance and reliability among the devices evaluated,” plus 0% financing for the laptops, 0.99% for the iPads, and access to AppleCare+ to keep the operational maintenance budget under control.
Unsurprisingly, the residual value of the MacBook Neo was also much higher than Asus or Lenovo. The board determined the MacBook Neo fleet could be sold to an outside bulk buyer for between $180 and $250 at the end of the four-year term, whereas the current Chromebooks are worth about $10 each.
Notably, Harrah also pointed to the ability for the district’s own IT department to receive Apple authorization to repair screens, batteries, and keyboards in-house, reducing turnaround time and ensuring the devices get back into students’ hands as quickly as possible. She even proposed a student-run technology support program in which students could troubleshoot devices and gain practical technology skills, working with Lamar University to certify teachers in the Apple Learning Coach program.
