Insufficient information (Score 1)

The problem isn't specified well enough to allow any helpful answer other than "define the problem better, and you may answer it yourself."

We don't know where the "home village" is. "Village" doesn't sound like the United States, outside the east coast. It could be in Haiti or Cote d'Ivoire (eachhaving a GDP per capita, even adjusted upward on a PPP basis, of only around $1,500 a year, and in actual non-adjusted figures far less) rather than a US $42,000. In places like the former, $1000 is impossibly huge; in places like the other, it's mere pocket change at a private Manhattan day school.

There's no indication what, _exactly_, is meant by "educational software." I am skeptical of the very term. It can mean anything from "learn to type" programs to flashcard programs, or maybe Carmen SanDiego or The Oregon Trail. Is Sokoban "educational software"? There's no indication whether any such software is actually being used _now_ on the Windows machines, let alone what it (if anything) might be: the actual text mentions only a concern about "availability" of such a category of software on Linux, no specifics about what exactly anyone thinks is better learned via a program than from a teacher in person or better learned at a keyboard and screen than with a pencil or book.

The question does not give any explicit reason for labeling it "abhorrent" that the existing 14 PCs are Win 95/8/XPHome. Is it abhorrent because it's a sign that the school lacks money while a local police chief has a Mercedes squad car? Or for some other reason? Maybe there's a reason for using such emotional language. But with none given explicitly, the label does nothing to help inform an answer. Would it be "abhorrent" that I still have a working Win95/P1/32MBRAM notebook along with my Suse/P4/512MBRAM one and my wife's YDL/iBook366/320MBRAM one?

The question doesn't say anything consistent about the PC hardware. It hints obliquely that only some "capable" PCs, not all the PCs, could be upgraded enough to run XP Pro; but it refers to shifting "all" of them to Linux.

So we don't know the location, the economy, a budget perspective, the hardware specs, what any felt software needs are, what current software is being used to teach what specific subjects or skills, or even what exactly prompts the "abhorrent" comment. There's no indication anyone else at the school finds anything abhorrent, or has asked the questioner to help. There's no indication the kids are failing to learn any particular subject or skill. There's not even any indication what the questioner's connection to the school is; only a statement that he's not physically in the "home village" often enough to help out much. Certainly he hasn't helped provide enough facts to allow meaningful advice.