Their point is that if the Free Software solution is far inferior to the non-Free solution, it doesn't seem right to harm the students' education in the name of

Their point is that if the Free Software solution is far inferior to the non-Free solution, it doesn't seem right to harm the students' education in the name of ideology. I'm not disputing the validity of the ideological point here, but it isn't enough. The Free Software solution needs to be genuinely competitive.