Administrators have raised questions about possible security problems with laptops, such as theft or misplacement. And the cost of laptops, which is substantially more than equivalent stand-alone PCs, has proved a major barrier. Although laptop programs at individual schools and school districts have been in place for a number of years, so far there have been few detailed proposals beyond the local level. The Texas State Board of Education championed a proposal several years ago to replace the state's school textbooks with laptop computers and CD-ROMs, but it never drew serious interest from the state legislature. The Maine laptop proposal so far is the only one to come from the top levels of state government, although that wasn't enough to protect it from a damaging barrage of opposition from other lawmakers who say the state would be wiser investing its education money differently.
Maine has a great work ethic and motivated work force, which is why companies locate here.
King thought this problem should be attacked in schools, Sprague said, so the governor asked various people in the educational arena to come up with ideas, then combined the best of those for his proposal. Portable computers were actually used in schools as far back as the late 1980s, said Tom Greaves, president of NetSchools Corp., Atlanta, Ga., when they became light enough for a kid to carry around. It offers schools a complete package, including hardware, software, Internet access, and ongoing training and support. And that requires a laptop. In 1996, when the AAL program was first piloted, just 52 public and private schools and a total of 6,000 students and teachers were enrolled.