Students At The University Of New Mexico Attend Classes On First Day Of New School Year
(Photo : Photo by Sam Wasson/Getty Images)
Bottles of hand sanitizer sit next to a laptop showing a Zoom meeting as students begin classes amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the first day of the fall 2020 semester at the University of New Mexico on August 17, 2020 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

U.S. Schools are facing laptop shortages and long delays that go up to several months. A report from Associated Press found that many are having hard time getting this year's most important school supply.

The three biggest computer companies in the world, Lenovo, HP and Dell told U.S. schools and school districts that they are having a laptop shortage.

This laptop shortage goes as far as many U.S. schools needing nearly 5 million laptops, affecting many students who are going through distance learning.

To make matter worse, some cases were made worse by the Trump administration's sanctions on Chinese suppliers. This was said in interviews with over two dozen U.S. schools, districts in 15 states, suppliers, computer companies and industry analysts.

The tensions grew after the said companies were believed to use forced labor, or are involved with human rights abuses. To be specific, abuses in China's Uighur population in Northwest China were linked to the claims, reported Newsweek.

On top of the sanctions, the increased demand for laptops has also fueled the shortage.

Laptop Shortage Worries Educators

As the school year is going virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic, educators in U.S. schools worry about the effects the shortage will do. It won't just affect them as educators but will give headaches for students and their families.

"This is going to be like asking an artist to paint a picture without paint. You can't have a kid do distance learning without a computer," said Supt. Tom Baumgarten of the Morongo Unified School District in California.

The Morongo Unified School district serves 8,000 students with free lunch and most of the need computers to keep up with distance learning.

Baumgarten was about to buy 5,000 Lenovo Chromebook for the district. But he was called off by his vendor.

The vendor said Lenovos were getting "stopped by a government agency because of a component from China that's not allowed here," he said.

When he opted to get HPs, he was told they would arrive in time for the first day of school, August 26. But the delivery date was changed up to until October.

The district has roughly 4,000 old laptops that can serve about half of its students, but this leaves the others with nothing.

 "I'm very concerned that I'm not going to be able to get everyone a computer," Baumgarten said.

COVID-19 Hits Hard on Computer Manufacturing

This year has made many things feel the effects of COVID-19. The computer manufacturing industry is not saved from this. According to an Axios report, the supply chain in China computer makers was disrupted due to New Year's holiday closures and virus-related slowdowns.

A Wall Street Journal report said that the start of the pandemic led to shortages in essential laptop components. But it added that many companies have been struggling even prior to the pandemic.

Microprocessor manufacturers had been struggling to keep up with demand. To add to that, cloud storage demand also raised orders for advanced processors from companies like Intel.

PC sales went up dramatically in March, as the spread of COVID-19 took over U.S. schools, forcing remote learning. Five months later, Acer America is "not even close" to meeting demand, said company president Gregg Prendergast.

Chromebooks and other low-cost PCs are the kinds of computers that budget-strapped schools are choosing amid the pandemic. But there had been delays since spring and had only gone worse because of high demand and disruptions in the supply chain.

Laptops are getting off store shelves as fast as toilet paper and other pandemic necessities did in the first few months of the pandemic.

With more disruptions in the supply chain, the shortage will likely go on as people want to study and get entertained amid the pandemic.

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