[seul-edu] Typical costs paid by school districtsfor software?

["Culp, David" <CulpD@cfbisd.edu>]

I have been hard at work on a web site which will become  a Linux help site
featuring public help forums, discussions, tutorials, reviews, links,
software etc.....  One of the areas of the site is a public
editorial/opinion area where people can submit editorial/opinion pieces and
give people the chance to discuss it.  You can preview the site at
http://www.thelinuxgurus.org .  It has some formatting problems right now,
hopefully nothing major and the site looks OK in your browser.  If I work
really, really hard I can even hit my target opening date of Monday,
December 20th.

Anyway, I was going to write the first editorial piece tonight.  I wanted to
do a piece on getting Linux into schools. I was wanting to cost compare the
typical cost of software (OS and support software) of Windows vs. Linux.  I
know our school districts pays whatever the OEM who builds the systems pays
for Windows NY.  Which I figure to be $50-$90.00.  However, I am not sure
how much they pay for MS Office, every system in the district (about 7,000 I
believe) has MS Office 97 on it with Word, Outlook, Access, Powerpoint,
Excel etc....  I do know they buy a license that lets them install MS Office
on a certain number of "seats", currently I am figuring a costs of about
$100.00 per license for MS Office. 

Thanks for everyones help.

David Culp