iBook program nets $400,000,000 software grant for Maine

Its attention drawn by Maine’s middle-school iBook program, the Texas company EDS said Thursday it’s giving Maine schools software valued at $400 million to help the state implement its pioneering effort. “EDS will also make software available to high schools and the Maine Technical College and state university systems so students using it will be better trained to work for precision manufacturers. Gov. Angus King said that to his knowledge, the gift, with a commercial value of $400 million, is the largest ever made to the state of Maine. ‘It’s somewhat breathtaking to be announcing a gift of this magnitude,’ added King, whose effort to make laptop computers available to every seventh- and eighth-grader in the state has drawn interest nationally and from other countries,” reports Glenn Adams for Associated Press. Gov. King deserves praise for standing up to short-sighted state legislators who tried to kill the iBook program earlier this year. Read the whole story here.