On Thursday last week, Irving and Judith Isaacson distributed laptops to 50 students in Lewiston and Auburn to take to college.

It was more than generous; it was acknowledgment that computers are as essential to education as textbooks and calculators.

High school students who become college students will enter a computer-based workforce. Education is more than enrichment. It’s about building skills to be employed in the workforce. Computer literacy is vital to building those skills.

Maine, the first in the nation to provide laptops to middle-schoolers, fast recognized what other states were slow to see: computers in the classroom foster student collaboration, engage students with learning using a medium they like, and open a vast window to information and ideas that no school-based library could possibly match.

According to a recent University of California study, teens who have had access to computers in high school are between 6 to 8 percent more likely to graduate than teens who do not. The study concluded that computers made school assignments easier to complete, made better test-takers out of students and reduced truancy in teens, which naturally made them more productive at school.

That same theory can be applied to college education.

The evidence that computers improve education is so strong that Ball State University requires all students who enter its teacher education program to come to school equipped with a laptop, not only so they can do their own schoolwork, but also so they can learn how to teach using computers. Students enrolled in the business program at the University of Vermont are also required to own laptops, forced to start using a tool that is a basic necessity in the business world.

These campuses are among dozens across the nation that impose this computer requirement because students need these tools to access class notes, submit assignments and correspond with professors and fellow students.

Laura Martel of Lewiston, who is planning to study physical education at the University of Maine at Orono in the fall, was among the 50 students awarded a new laptop. She will be going to a high-tech campus with plenty of students who have access to computers, and this gift provides her greater equity in pursuing her education.

The Isaacsons have done a lot of good for this community through their L&A Fund. What they’ve done here is just plain great.