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Today, members from the Bond Oversight Committee blocked Phase I of Superintendent John Deasy’s plan to provide tablet computers for all students and faculty by the end of 2013.

The first phase of Deasy’s plan called for spending $17.4 million on tablets for 14 secondary schools. The Bond Oversight Committee voted 7-3 to approve the plan, but it needed eight votes to pass. The committee’s action was an “advisory vote,” and the proposal can still be brought to the full school board next month, although Deasy will not do so.

“The Committee’s action is a setback to our efforts to make LAUSD K-12 students competitive with the best school districts in the country,” said a disappointed Deasy, in a press release (read it here).

Update: Four of the committee members were absent from the vote. If just one of them had voted for it, it would have passed. According to Tom Rubin, a consultant for the committee, the money would have been borrowed from a pool of funds earmarked to build an early education center. That project is currently on hold. Rubin said the committee members voting no didn’t like the idea of taking money away from that project.