LAPTOP

On March 2, 2000, Governor Angus King of Maine launched a bold initiative to turn his state and its children into leaders of the digital revolution. King's proposal, "From Lunch Boxes to Laptops," would make Maine the first state to consider a child's ownership of a personal computer as much an inalienable right as the right to attend school. Specifically, King submits that every student should graduate from sixth grade not only with fluency in using computers but also with a personal computer to keep and use in school and out. Governor King credits Seymour Papert with inspiring and helping to shape the plan. (See the link to "Blue Hill Man Inspired King's Laptop Proposal" at the end of this article.)

This unprecedented plan has drawn both high praise and harsh criticism and has sparked discussion across the nation. Few issues in Maine have given rise in such a short time to so much public writing—editorials, op-ed pieces, columns, letters to the editor—and discussion on radio talk shows, Web sites, chat rooms, and other such forums. Papert has commented that whether or not the proposal is supported by the state legislature, which in the end has to approve it, it has already advanced education by stirring up such a wealth of discussion. "The ballpark of discussion has changed," he says. "People who thought that the question about technology in education was whether there should be a computer in every classroom have had their eyes opened to the idea that something much bigger is at stake."
King's original plan set aside $50 million from the state budget surplus for a technology endowment. Beginning in 2002 interest from this fund, together with privately raised money (King envisioned at least $15 million), would have paid for laptop computers for every student in every seventh-grade class in Maine's public schools. The endowment would also have been used to pay half the cost of personal computers for public-school teachers at all grade levels. School districts would have been expected to make a one-time contribution of $250 per teacher, the teacher providing the rest. An additional $1 million per year in ongoing professional development for teachers would have helped them to integrate the use of technology and the Internet into the curriculum.