During the presidential debates, Vice President Al Gore told the story of Kailey Ellis, a student at Florida's Sarasota High School who had to stand during one of her science classes because there weren't enough desks.

The principal, Daniel Kennedy, later explained that it was the beginning of the year, when schedules were in flux, and they hadn't figured out where to put all the desks they had. The girl could have had a desk if she'd asked for one. The classroom already contained a good deal of new equipment: two wall-mounted television monitors connected to a desktop computer, twelve student computers at six lab stations and many pieces of new lab equipment.

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