Every South Dakota high school student should have a laptop computer as part of a statewide effort to boost the use of technology in education, Gov. Mike Rounds told state lawmakers Dec. 6.

If the Republican governor's $39 million proposal eventually is approved, South Dakota would join several other states--including Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Indiana--in gearing up to launch ambitious, one-to-one computing programs intended to help educators meet the challenges of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and equip students with the technical know-how necessary to succeed in the 21st century.

Such renewed interest in statewide one-to-one computing programs comes at a time when state budget scenarios are beginning to turn around. After a few years of budget deficits, the National Governors Association reported in February that governors in at least 24 states projected stronger-than-anticipated budgets through the end of 2005--and at least nine of these 24 made some mention of a spending surplus.

Budget concerns have stalled or curtailed ambitious school laptop programs in Maine and Michigan, two states that were at the forefront of the one-to-one computing movement only a few years ago.

But as fiscal conditions across the country continue to improve, odds are good that more state policy makers and educators will again begin looking seriously at the potential benefits of one-to-one computing programs in their schools.

In Massachusetts, Republican Gov. Mitt Romney has said publicly that he would like to get laptops into the hands of every student in his state. Romney's interest in the concept intensified earlier this year when researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced they had developed a laptop that could sell for as little as $100 (see story: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5567).

The machines, which researchers plan to begin deploying in third-world countries within months, are scheduled to become available in the U.S. in the next two years, according to estimates provided by MIT's Nicholas Negroponte, whose private foundation--One Laptop Per Child--plans to donate between 5 million and 15 million of the machines to children in Brazil, China, Egypt, Thailand, and South Africa.

Romney said he hopes to start buying the machines for all 500,000 middle- and high- school students in Massachusetts as soon as they become available.

In New Mexico, state education officials are pushing ahead with their Laptop Learning Initiative Pilot program. Launched in 2004, the initiative originally provided laptops to seventh-graders and their teachers at six middle schools across the state. The pilot, which lets students keep their laptops through high school, is seen by many as a precursor to an eventual statewide deployment--one that education department officials say hinges on how much money is provided by the legislature.