Maine Schools Offer 30,000 Used Laptops for $48 Each

As part of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, Apple Computer is providing Maine’s seventh- and eighth-graders during the 2006-07 school year, as well as their teachers, with 36,000 laptop computers. 

What, you ask, will happen to the 30,000-odd computers Apple is to replace?

Have no fear. No notebook will be wasted if the Maine schools have any say in the matter: The old laptops are being offered to other state schools for $48 apiece, the Associated Press reports via Boston.com.

In 2002 and 2003, upward of 36,000 Apple iBooks were issued to all 241 public middle schools in Maine, and this fall Apple will provide the next batch, according to the AP.

The majority of schools are electing to pay the $48 fee for each laptop, though they aren’t required to do so, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative’s Heather Hamlin told the AP.

For instance, public schools in Waterville, Maine, plan to keep the old computers, according to the AP.

“They are four years older, half of them, and a little slow, but they’re still functional, and for $48 apiece they’re a good investment,” Stephen Smith, Waterville technology director, told the AP.

A good deal, indeed, but school officials realize the computers are used goods.

“It sounds like a great deal at $48, but these computers have been used hard,” Dave Person, a technology specialist in Skowhegan, Maine’s School Administrative District 54, told the AP.

A number of schools are also trying to determine what should be done with the old computers once they’re retained, according to the AP. Offering the computers to the families of students or issuing them to other students in different grades are two possibilities, the AP reports.

Schools in Augusta have already decided to purchase the used computers and send them out to its four public elementary schools, according to the AP.

For related news coverage, read Apple to Provide 36K Laptops to Maine Schools.

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.