Free Internet access boosts benefit of school laptops

Monday, August 15, 2005

Maine students of all backgrounds and income levels should have the same access and privileges when it comes to education.

A new program spearheaded by former Gov. Angus S. King Jr. helps make that so.

The initiative announced last week provides free home Internet access for Maine's middle-school students and to some ninth- and 10th-graders who receive free or reduced-cost school lunches.

It is a creative and responsible effort that builds on the laptop computer program King established three years ago as governor. That worthwhile initiative loans an Apple iBook to each of Maine's 36,000 seventh- and eighth-graders for the school year.

King's latest push to narrow the digital divide is an innovative venture in which the nonprofit Maine Learning Technology Foundation has teamed with Biddeford-based Great Works Internet, an Internet service provider.

The foundation was created to improve the use of technology in learning as a way to boost Maine's educational system and, ultimately, its economy.

King helped raise $850,000 on behalf of the foundation to create the program aimed at placing low-income middle schoolers on equal footing with classmates whose families can afford Internet access at home.

The program also provides significantly discounted prices on broadband Internet service for any student or teacher who has been issued an iBook through the state laptop program.

King, an independent who served as governor from 1995 through 2002, deserves credit for remaining a leader in the effort to make computers and Web access available to Maine's students.

Without his push, including his recent fund-raising efforts, many students would go without these important learning tools.

That would be unfair and unfortunate.

The laptop program has proven its value by providing thousands of Maine students with increased access to information at school. But many of those students give up that access when they go home each afternoon.

It is a shame and a waste for students to be issued powerful Apple laptops and then to not be able to use them as intended -- unless they are at school.

The laptops' portability is much of what makes them an asset to students who are on the move and who do much of their research and other school work at home or other locations away from campus.

With the availability of free or discounted home Internet access for low-income students, the school laptop program becomes more complete and beneficial to many more students.

That makes it an even better investment in Maine's future.