Maine Public School System Expanding Macbook Program

by Blaine Metzgar | March 17, 2009 at 11:01 am

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The state of Maine is planning on supplying an Apple Macbook to every public school student in grades 7 to 12 in the state by this fall. In 2002-2003 the state started this initiative by distibuting upwards of 30,000 Macbooks to every seventh and eigth grade public school student.

About 30 high schools already have laptops that they obtained outside the scope of the original program. But now all 120 of Maine's high schools, along with 241 middle schools, will have new laptops under the same program, at a cost of about $242 per computer per year, said Education Commissioner Susan Gendron.

Maine Governor John Baldacci said the program is being paid for with existing resources at no extra cost to the taxpayer, which is good news in the current economic climate.

The expansion of the program is expected to cost $25 million per year, nearly double what the state currently pays to supply 37,000 middle-schoolers and nearly 10,000 middle school and high school teachers and administrators. The extra $12 million will add 53,000 highschoolers to the list of recipents of the Macbooks.

School administrators say the laptop program, aimed at eliminating the so-called "digital divide" between wealthy and poor students, has been a success. A study released in 2007 by the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine indicated writing scores improved after laptops were introduced.

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