Laptop Logistics
     While other states have launched similar pilot programs, Maine is the first to propose a statewide introduction of the laptops. The state has a one-time budget surplus, $50 million of which has not been allocated. King has proposed setting it aside in an endowment and funding the program with the interest. Spokesman Tony Sprague says that with even an 8 percent or 9 percent return, the plan could be funded with $7 million to $8 million each year, and the initial investment would never be touched. Setting the fund in place this year would leave the program ready for the fall of 2002.
     It may not be as easy to have the initiative approved. Some lawmakers have questioned whether the money could best be used elsewhere, and legislators and parents have doubted whether seventh graders can be trusted with expensive equipment.
     "It's one of the sadder parts of the debate," he said. "Lots of what we're doing in education is to raise aspirations and self confidence in kids, and here lots of people have said they can't be trusted. It's disappointing that people aren't giving seventh graders the benefit of the doubt and are judging them by the worst kid in town."
     But because of the scope and relative nascence of Maine's plan, many education experts haven't rendered their final verdict on the program's worth. "I think the jury's still out," said David Byer, the executive director of the congressionally appointed Web Based Education Commission. Dane Linn, education policy studies director at the National Governors' Association, agreed. "I think it's too new of an idea to give you an answer," he said. "If you take a look at the response in Maine, one of the concerns is 'we're devoting so much money to education already, how can we afford this investment?' But technology plays an integral role in the learning process. It's part of what people do in work every day, and for us not to make it a part of what kids to every day doesn't make sense."
     But Maine is not the first state to enter into that debate. Texas was the first to consider a pilot program implementing laptops, and Georgia and West Virginia are both exploring similar action.

The Corporate Connection
     Much of the interest in these projects has been sparked by NetSchools, a four-year-old company that provides a laptop and wireless Internet connection to 36 schools in 13 states, or about 1,200 students. The company was founded on the principle that having a computer lab or cluster in each classroom doesn't provide students with the best opportunity to use technology.
     The company spent its first two years developing a laptop crafted to withstand abuse from K-12 students. The laptop was designed to be crush-proof, drop-proof and easily upgradable, said NetSchools CEO Scott Redd. The program also features infrared, wireless Internet connections installed in each classroom, a battery that can last through an average school day, and a teacher's ability to turn on and off the laptops, blank their screens, disconnect e-mail access and even turn off a computer's spell-check.

NetSchools Sees A Reyes Of Light
     To test the pilot program, NetSchools contacted Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-TX, who has been active on finding ways to decrease the digital divide. They targeted Ysleta Elementary School in El Paso, where 92 percent of students qualify for the free or reduced-price school lunch program. The program was implemented successfully, and the school board recently committed to expand the program to all middle and high schools. Teachers who had originally objected to the program have been swayed. They now say that it has motivated and excited the students, according to Reyes spokeswoman Yvette Pena, who visited some of the NetSchools sites in the district this week with the congressman.
     "[Reyes] even stood on top of the laptop because NetSchools asked him to," Pena said, noting the computers' durability and adding that not one laptop has been lost. Reyes also has signed on to sponsor the National Digital Empowerment Act with Rep. Barbara Mikulski, D-MD, which includes provisions calling for a national laptop program for all students.

Casting The Net
     Other states are trying to follow NetSchools' business model. West Virginia's Hundred High School in rural Wetzel County was one of the first NetSchools, and Gov. Cecil Underwood, R, said in his State of the State address that he will propose expanding the program to classes in four other counties.
     "In a society where so many are bound by stereotypes, who could imagine that this school in rural Wetzel County would equip every student with a laptop computer and invest in an infrared network for every classroom?" Underwood wrote recently in one of his weekly columns.
     That stereotype is being challenged from schools from Texas to Maine, but Maine's King sees that as a big advantage. After President Clinton lauded the initiative during a speech in Silicon Valley, King noted he was glad it had caught the president's attention. But King said he was even more excited that Clinton had expressed that sentiment in front of technology leaders.
     "These are the creators and innovators of the computer and high-tech industry, and they just heard the president say that Maine is going to lead the world in the digital age," King said. "Long before the first computers are in the hands of our seventh graders, we are already changing the way our nation looks at Maine, and that can only be good for our kids and our economy."
- by Stephanie Lash