Maine’s Laptop program extended 4 years. Provides a laptop for every middle school student in the state.

Maine’s pioneering laptop program, which has been copied around the country and lauded by educators for putting technology into the hands of every middle school student, is set for another four years.

The state Department of Education announced Thursday it has signed a $41 million contract with Apple Computer for new iBook laptops, training and support.

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MAINE’S LAPTOP PROGRAM

2000: Gov. Angus King announces a $50 million initiative to give every Maine seventh-grader a laptop computer. He revises his proposal to give the computers to the schools, not to the students. The state picks Apple as supplier to students and 3,000 teachers. The company agrees to provide iBooks for about $300 per user. The four-year, $37.2 million contract is signed in January 2002. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation commits $1 million to be used in connection with the plan.

2002: MBNA Foundation commits $1 million over five years to the laptop program. Two dozen banks across the state agree to donate a total of $95,000. Laptops are made available to every seventh-grader at 239 public schools in the state.

2003: Seventh- and eighth-graders who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches become eligible for free home Internet hookups.

2004: The Legislature fails to agree to a proposal to extend the laptop program to high school students. An interim program lets high schools buy computers at the same price as middle schools.

2006: Apple submits winning bid to supply seventh- and eighth-graders with new laptops. The state offers to sell the used laptops to schools for $48 as it gets ready to buy new ones.

– Staff researcher Julia McCue

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By BETH QUIMBY, Portland Press Herald Writer

Full Story: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/060630laptops.shtml