More than half of schools seen joining state laptop program

More than half of Maine's high schools plan to equip their students with Apple laptops as part of the state's Learning Technology Initiative, according to preliminary state data.

Sixty-four of Maine's 119 public high schools have signed or are planning to sign onto the program. The remaining 55 districts have declined to participate.

The Maine Department of Education expects to place an order with Apple for 60,000 laptops and then order additional machines as eight additional districts formalize their decisions, department spokesman David Connerty-Marin said.

Those 60,000 machines will also cover seventh- and eighth-grade students and the state's middle and high school teachers, who have received computers under the initiative since it began in 2002.

There's a chance the eight districts that have yet to formalize a decision ultimately won't participate in the laptop program, Connerty-Marin said. Some are waiting until the Department of Education has confirmed with federal officials whether schools can use a pool of federal funds called Title I to pay laptop leases. Others need their school boards to sign off on their intentions to provide the machines.

"Ultimately, districts will need to decide for their budgeting purposes," he said. "There will be a point at which they won't be able to have them for their students at the start of school.

"That doesn't mean they can't have them for the third week of school," Connerty-Marin added.

The expansion of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative to the high school grades has changed shape a number of times since Gov. John Baldacci unveiled the plans in March.

School districts initially faced a May deadline to decide whether they would participate in the program's expansion. But the decision deadline is on hold now as state education officials sort out what federal funds schools can use to pay for the machines.

Early program guidelines also required that school systems purchase laptops for all high school students. Now, program rules allow districts to lease laptops for only a portion of the student body.

Apple is charging $242 annually for each MacBook, equipped with pre-installed educational software.

The initiative also includes training for teachers on integrating technology into their instruction and wireless-network upgrades for schools.