Laptop contract inquiry poses wrong question

Thursday, July 11, 2002

Agood lawyer, it is said, never asks a question to which he doesn't already know the answer. The same can be said of politicians, and certainly of two Republican lawmakers questioning the need for a state program providing laptop computers to the state's seventh- and eighth-graders.

Reps. Philip Cressey Jr. of Baldwin and Brian Duprey of Hampden have written to Attorney General Steven Rowe and posed a leading question: Can the state get out of its $35 million contract with Apple Computer without paying a penalty?

We're not legal scholars, but it would seem to us that the state Supreme Court decision on Maine's CarTest program largely settled that matter. Maine had a contract with CarTest to test the emissions of people's vehicles. When the program proved unpopular, the state pulled out. The court said the state is sovereign in such matters, giving the Legislature the right to set its own rules as to what is fair or unfair when it comes to contracts.

One would expect that the same would hold true for the Apple contract. One would also expect that two members of that same sovereign Legislature would understand this.

The question is not, nor has it ever been, whether Maine can get out of its contract with Apple, but whether it should.

The answer to that is even more clear than the CarTest decision. To be competitive, Maine has to build on its already strong K-12 education system by making computer literacy universal among its graduates.

This is not something that would nice to have as education goal, but an imperative as important as reading, math or writing. The day is not far off when there will be no factory job, no construction job, no retail job, no office job and no warehouse job that does not demand computer skills.

To deal with a budget gap, Gov. King has already proposed a further trimming of the laptop fund from $25 million to $15 million. This will transform the program from one fortified with an endowment to one dependent on an annual appropriation, something King and laptop proponents had previously resisted.

To go the next step and kill the program may not cost anything in dollars and cents paid to Apple, but it will exact a heavy price on Maine's children.

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