As this site has demonstrated for the last couple of years, free software works. Not one dollar has been spent by Cobb County or Lassiter High School or any booster club to support it. Not one.

Nor has anyone paid anything for the software itself - it's free!

This donated site runs on an eight-year-old server which supports a number of other applications and web sites. It uses a shared Internet connection. It works. It offers many more features and capabilities than the commercial blogging software currently bought and paid for by the school (although it could be configured - "dumbed down" - to do only what the blogging software does.)

(Not to mention that there is free, open source blogging software available that is virtually a drop-in replacement for the commercial stuff...)

County wide, taxpayers probably spend tens of thousands of dollars annually for commercial software that could be replaced by free, open source software that is as good as or better than the commercial options. Optional support for these open source applications is available locally.

The savings realized by moving to open source solutions could be used to support vital needs - such as teachers' salaries - for which there is no substitute. Given the current and projected budget pressures, we should make the move to free software as soon as existing contract conditions will allow.