Class 1:1 is a Katy ISD policy in which every Katy ISD student in grades 3-12 will be given a Chromebook for the year starting in fall 2024.

The Katy ISD School Board believes that this policy will help students adapt to the technology-based world, be less distracted in class, and level the technological disadvantages faced by underprivileged students. However, there are numerous arguments against the policy that outweigh the possible benefits. There is also extensive pushback to the fact that personal devices including phones are banned on school campuses under the policy. 

Safety- The district argues that the use of Chromebooks instead of personal devices makes students safer as they cannot access inappropriate websites on the Chromebooks. Hypocritically the taking away of phones makes a modern school inherently unsafe. There has been a rise in school shootings in the US over the past few years. Chromebooks do not possess the ability to contact law enforcement and students will not have access to their phone to use in a situation like this. If there was ever an emergency where a school-wide evacuation happened before dismissal time students would have to rely on school administrators to contact their parents to come get them. This becomes a statistical nightmare in Katy ISD high schools which all have student populations around 3,000. Even in non-school-wide emergencies such as a female student needing new clothes because of her period or a student with ongoing medical or mental conditions, students would need to seek out a nurse or administrator to contact a parent for them, this can often be embarrassing or anxiety-inducing for the student.
Learning- Even though a school district’s main concern should be the education of its students this policy may be severely detrimental to learning. In the younger grades, especially constant device use will be a detriment. Constantly looking at text on a screen can dry out or otherwise irritate eyes, yet Katy ISD would want its elementary students to learn how to read digitally instead of physical books. Katy ISD wants classrooms to cut down on paper use with the new policy, yet many students will still need paper to work out math problems and in advanced high school classes for diagram drawings. Students will be deprived of physical visual learning that they can touch and interact with. Teachers do not possess the skill set to adequately teach students digitally. Teachers will also lose class time as they are expected to help students when their Chromebook malfunctions. 
Social- Children today are overly reliant on technology. Giving these children a screen to stare at at school all day is only going to make the phenomenon worse. Asking questions in class often turns into a large group discussion which not only helps learning by expanding on a subject but helps children foster social connections and learn how to speak constructively. Having a Chromebook in front of these curious children will lead to a thousand private Google searches instead of strong learning moments. A student with a screen in front of them will never see the need to learn how to respectfully communicate with their teachers or peers.
AP Classes- AP-certified teachers are bound by their contract with the College Board to never put College Board Secure questions in any online program. Katy ISD has told teachers when Class 1:1 begins all tests are expected to be given through Katy ISD’s Aware testing program. This policy threatens the certification of the district’s most qualified teachers. AP teachers have also argued that because the AP Exams are not transitioning to digital, spending the year doing digital tests is not adequate preparation for the exam.
Inadequacies of Chromebooks-  Many Katy ISD students use Chromebooks occasionally for class work and they have discovered many issues. The current Chromebooks at Katy ISD have run extremely slowly. It isn’t unusual for it to take 5-10 minutes for them to load after a student logs in. Chromebooks cannot run programs used by technical classes such as Auto CAD, AutoDesk Inventor, Blender, etc. Chromebooks become obsolete in these classes which are already hosted in computer labs, yet Katy ISD has told all teachers they need to test through the Aware Chromebook program raising the question of how the proficiency of students in these programs will be tested. Chromebook batteries only last for about 3 class periods meaning students would have to charge throughout the day but classrooms only have 3-6 outlets while there are often 30 students in a class.
WiFi- All Katy ISD schools have at least one WiFi network, however, they are all known for being extremely slow. There have already been problems with the Katy ISD WiFis crashing when too many students log into a Chromebook at once, such as on days with online tests like the STAAR or SAT. Katy ISD needs to improve its entire WiFi network if it even wants this number of Chromebooks to be operational. This of course will cost even more money than what they are already spending on Chromebooks.
Cost- The district plans to spend $16,208,170 on Class 1:1. 16 million dollars could be used to help in a lot of areas. Teachers frequently have to purchase supplies for their classrooms out of pocket, students who are part of a competitive school-sponsored club receive no financial help to pay for travel or materials, and many schools in the district have toilets that go unfixed for months. This amount of money could be used to greatly enrich students' lives or at least make school facilities fully functional but instead, it is being spent on fundamentally altering classrooms in a way that is detrimental to learning. The families of students also face the cost of either paying the district for Chromebook insurance which costs $20 per year to cover 2 repairs or 1 replacement or they can pay the total price out of pocket every time a Chromebook is damaged or lost. Students as young as 8 will be receiving an object that would cost their family $300 if they lost it without insurance or lost it twice with insurance.

Katy ISD did have a good reason, underprivileged students should have the ability to access technology. Katy ISD could easily supply schools with enough Chromebooks so that students who feel like they need one can have one for the year, but giving one to every single student and the policies that come with them are unreasonable.