LEWISTON – A plan to put a laptop computer in the hands of every Maine high-schooler sounds good, but it may come with too high a price for money-crunched schools.

Each computer needs someone to set it up, connect it to the Internet and show the teachers how to use it in the classroom.

Superintendents were uncertain Thursday how much the state plans to help with those costs.

“Who’s going to pay to deploy and manage the system?” asked Leon Levesque, Lewiston’s superintendent of schools.

Gov. John Baldacci announced the plan during Tuesday’s State of the State address to the Maine Legislature. Education Commissioner Susan Gendron followed on Wednesday, filling out the proposal with some details.

The program would run like the laptop initiative already in place for seventh- and eighth-graders, according to the Department of Education’s Web site. The computers would be largely the same as the middle school laptops, bought from Apple through an exclusive deal with the state.

Along with the computers, the state has pledged to install equipment in each school for wireless Internet delivery. It has also promised to expand the bandwidth – widening the river of wireless information – in schools where it’s needed.

But many questions remain. And schools will be given a chance to opt out of the program.

“All the details are not out right now,” Levesque said. “Until we get all the figures, we can’t decide.”

Levesque has directed officials at Lewiston High School to create an action plan, in case he and the School Committee accept the state’s proposal.

“We hope to learn more on Monday in a meeting with Commissioner Gendron,” Levesque said.

The answers will be coming, said David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the Department of Education. It is expected to come up on Monday, in a meeting between Gendron and superintendents from across Maine.

The laptop plan, now part of the governor’s budget proposal, would roll out this fall.

If schools wish to opt out of the plan, they would still get technology aid from the state. A fee was created a few years ago specifically as a bridge to a laptop program, Connerty-Marin said. It wouldn’t dry up for those who opt out.

The goal, however, is to bring as many schools into the fold as possible.

Gendron’s deal with Apple calls for the purchase of 100,000 MacBooks. The existing program includes about 43,000 laptops distributed to seventh- and eighth-graders as well as teachers in middle and high schools.

All students and teachers would get new computers in the proposed program.

It sounds extraordinary, Auburn School Superintendent Tom Morrill said Thursday.

“At this point in time, we’re very cautious,” he said.

Edward Little High School in Auburn already has many computers, but not enough to issue them to students.

“We’d love to jump on it, but we need to know all the costs,” Morrill said.

Mark Eastman, superintendent for SAD 17 based in Oxford, said he was both cautious and encouraged. After all, he was poised to lay off several people in the current budget crisis. Only voluntary contributions from staffers saved the jobs.

“We’ve been struggling,” he said.

Staff at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School have been working to outfit students the best they can.

The school, which has about 1,000 students, owns about 90 laptops. For the middle school kids who are accustomed to the laptops, it can be jarring to reach high school and lose what they had.

“It’s a cold shower for the kids,” Eastman said.