[school-discuss] Alternative to MS Office

[Dave Prentice <dprentice@uno.edu>]

Hello all,
    I'm an inner-city high school teacher and the designated Technology
Coordinator for my school in New Orleans, LA. At a technology meeting
last
week I heard a report that the school district licenses Microsoft Office
for
use on PCs throughout the district, and that the anticipated cost
citywide
is $800,000 for next year.
    Because of politics, the city is locked into Windows and Linux is
not an
option. However, I asked the networking chief who was conducting the
meeting
if he had considered Star Office (available on MS as well as Linux
platforms) as a low- or no-cost alternative. He was familiar with it,
and
said that he was using it as a bargaining chip to get MS to lower its
licensing price. <rant> Why even try to get MS to cut its price by 20%
if
you can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by using something else
for
ZERO cost! </rant>
    Does anybody have experience with highly respected products such as
Star
Office or others, that can replace MS office at low or no cost? I think
it's
ridiculous for a district that claims to be starved for cash (our 89
year
old building is being eaten up by termites -- we could sure use the
money!)
to spend almost a million bucks needlessly. I am looking for articles,
price
comparisons, case studies, etc. to give him showing that other school
districts have switched away from MS with positive results. Anybody have
any
resources to pass on?
Thanks,
Dave Prentice
prentice@instruction.com