Hey, so wait, did the Maine laptop initiative thingy go through after all? The last we'd heard, the deal was in limbo because of the massive public outcry and heavy political pressure for Governor King to spend the funds on social services instead of blowing the wad on 36,000 iBooks for every middle school student as Apple had trumpeted last month. Today, though, we stumbled upon an Associated Press article which states that "all 239 middle schools" in Maine have signed on to participate in the iBook program, which implies to us that it's a go. (Then again, Steve Jobs announcing it onstage at a keynote also implied to us that it was a go, so apparently our ability to recognize reasonable indicators of go-ness is slightly on the fritz.)

Well, let's just hope that what Apple has referred to as the biggest education sales deal in history is back on, because otherwise we know of 239 middle schools that are going to be awfully disappointed. The education department is heralding the schools' unanimous participation as a major endorsement of King's plan, since signing up was not mandatory, and each school had the option of taking a grant of "alternative equivalent value" instead of the iBooks-- but each and every one of them chose the Macs instead of the cash. While it's true that cash may be used to buy many iBooks (money can be exchanged for goods and services!) it's nice to see that middle schools are skipping the middleman and just taking the hardware.

Assuming all systems are go, it sounds like wireless AirPort networks will start going into the demonstration schools starting next month, and seventh-graders can look forward to receiving their iBooks this fall. Apparently eighth-graders won't get theirs until next year, but since next year's eighth-graders will be this year's seventh-graders, we just hope Maine is alert enough not to dish out two iBooks to the same students. (We may have uncovered a subtle flaw in the plan.) Man, wouldn't that be an embarrassment to a program that's already had enough black eyes?