A recently released study by the British Educational Communications and Technology concluded that UK primary schools could radically reduce their technology spending - by almost 50 percent - if they replaced vendor software and systems in favor of nonproprietary, open source products. The study's critics contend that such sizeable upfront savings nevertheless result in substantial backend costs. Open source is a vital issue, especially for those advancing the effective use of technology in education, With so many stakeholders and so many issues to be considered, open source needs careful debate and dialogue.