Laptop Program May Need Local Aid ; Gov. Baldacci Wants the Computer Program Extended to Ninth-Graders. Series: State House '04

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Gov. John Baldacci wants to expand Maine's first-in-the-nation laptop program to include ninth-graders next year, but he wants local school districts to pick up a share of the cost. The current program, which gives laptops to seventh- and eighth-graders, is paid for entirely by the state. Some state legislators lauded the proposed expansion Wednesday, but warned that requiring districts to share the cost would lead to greater inequity between rich and poor districts.

"Some districts are not going to do it," said Sen. Betty Lou Mitchell, R-Etna, who sits on the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee and served as its chair when the program was approved during former Gov. Angus King's administration. Requiring districts to join the program, she said, would amount to an unfunded mandate.

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Laptop Program May Need Local Aid ; Gov. Baldacci Wants the Computer Program Extended to Ninth-Graders. Series: State House '04

But some districts are not waiting for state help to buy laptops for ninth-graders. At Hampden Academy in SAD 22, residents raised $50,000 to buy 180 iBooks for the school's freshman class.

Assistant...

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