AUGUSTA – Should Maine taxpayers give high school students in grades 9 through 12 laptop computers at a cost of $47 million when the state is facing budget shortfalls?

Should schools – local taxpayers – pay for 45 percent of the costs?

Should the state allow schools who can’t pay for laptops to opt out?

That’s what Gov. John Baldacci is proposing. On Tuesday some leading legislators reacted with surprise, concern and doubt.

“There’s no way we can approve this kind of technology when we have people in wheelchairs having their basic services cut,” said Sen. Neria Douglass, D-Auburn, who chairs the Education Committee.

Before lawmakers approve a budget that includes expanding laptops from seventh and eighth grades to all four high school grades, several called on Baldacci to submit a laptop bill and hold a public hearing on the plan.

Sen. Mary Cathcart, D-Orono, Appropriations Committee co-chair, said she discovered the plan Monday when going over Baldacci’s proposed changes to the supplemental budget.

Aware Baldacci was planning to expand laptops to ninth grade, she was “astonished” to see the one-page, one-paragraph summary of a lease-purchase authorization for a 4-year program that would cost $44.5 million, plus $3.3 million in interest.

“This is a major policy change,” Cathcart said.

“We need to have a public hearing. The Appropriations Committee should reject this. The governor should put in a bill and send it to the Education Committee, and then have a public hearing. … That is the only honest way to do this,” she said

Others, including Douglass, Appropriations Committee member Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, and House Minority Leader Joe Bruno, R-Raymond, agreed.

“We’re talking about a very costly expansion of a significant program,” Rotundo said. “That should come to us in bill form so there can be a public hearing … so proper study can be done to see whether an expansion is justified. None of this is happening.”

She and others also objected to the administration’s plan to:

• Take $8 million from the revolving school renovation fund for the laptops. “I don’t know how we can take $8 million out of the renovation fund then ask for another bond to pay for it,” Bruno said.

• Force schools to pay for 45 percent of the cost several years from now.

• Allow schools who won’t or can’t pay for laptops to opt out of the program.

Legislators weren’t sure Tuesday how the remaining millions for laptops would be financed.

“The program was initially sold to us to overcome the ‘digital divide,’ to make laptops available for all children, not just those from wealthier communities,” Rotundo said. If students from poorer communities don’t have laptops and students from wealthier communities do, “where’s the equity in that?” she asked.

At 1 p.m. Thursday Education Commissioner Susan Gendron will appear before the Education Committee to present the plan in detail, Douglass said.

Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey said a public hearing may not be necessary.

Using school renovation money for laptops is appropriate, as is expanding laptops to high school grades by proposing the plan in a supplemental budget change, Umphrey said.

“Over the years there’s been enough discussion about the use of technology in the classroom. It’s proven to be successful,” he said.

Maine needs to decide now how to best invest in young people so Maine’s workforce skills and the job climate improve, Umphrey said. “While the budget is difficult, we have to make choices. Investing in students and young people should be a priority.”

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