How are schools finding ways to fund their programs? As to the question of funding - is 1-to-1 costly and hard to fund? Of course! Is that a reason not to do it? Does that mean it is bad? No. It is worth the effort to find funding. The real question should be, how have others funded it? What are the creative solutions to funding? It's clearly not impossible - others are doing it right now. So there have to be answers out there. Is it hard work? Yes. But being hard has never been a legitimate excuse for not doing something worth doing. About funding, Crystal Priest, technology coordinator for Guilford schools, one of the most technology-rich districts in Maine, and in one of the poorest counties in the country, says: “Guilford is consistently in the bottom 10 on per pupil expenditures.  We are able to pull it off, so there is no excuse for other schools to not be able to pull it off.” How are schools finding the financial resources to fund 1-to-1? Maine is working to make technology a part of the permanent funding of schools.  Although in it's infancy, with many details to be worked out (and educators skeptical of its effectiveness), the state has made technology a targetted area in its Essential Programs and Services (EPS) funding.  EPS will deliver to schools minimum funding to be used on technology.  Grade levels targeted for 1-to-1 receve more money perstudent than grade levels that the state isn't targetting for 1-to-1. Schools are still exploring how to fund pieces not funded by EPS. In one district, the special education department already recognized the positive impact that laptops were having on their students.  The principal recognized that 16% of their students were receiving special education services, so asked special education to fund 16%.  Special Education agreed. The state has limits on how much Special Education money can be used this way.  Those limits increase when more than half your student population is identified as "Free and Reduced Lunch."  At this same district, students could take their laptops home, if parents signed an agreement and participated in an insurance program.  The district self-insured the laptops, but families paid a fee.  The families of students recieving Free and Reduced Lunch also received a discounted insurance fee.  Because of the discount, more families who  qualified for  Free and Reduced Lunch actually applied, bringing the district's numbers to over 50% and allowing them to use the full 16% laptop funding from Special Education. Another district made sure that student IEPs were tied directly to the laptops to insure that they could use appropriate Special Education funds for the technology. Guilford, who currently maintains 1-to-1 in grades 6-12, uses a variety of strategies to find funding: applying for any grant that might fit their educational and technology goals partnerships with local businesses that are looking to hire technologically savvy workers using end of year rollover funds corporate donations Title I funds taking advantage of state and federal regulations that allow them to shift funding between "Titles" given the demographics of their district Also, Guilford began their laptop work with lease purchases to spread costs over several years, but have now switched to outright purchases so that they are not locked into anything. They are also currently working to move infrastructure costs, such as networks, hubs, servers, wiring, etc., to the building maintenance budget much as heating, electric, and plumbing currently are. Recognizing that technology is a tool to help address diverse educational needs and a creative eye toward funding seem to be the secret to disctricts finding the money to support their 1-to-1 programs. Do you have ideas on how schools can creatively fund their learning with laptop programs? Please email your thoughts to Mike Muir at mmuir@maine.edu.

The 1-to-1 Advocate 1-to-1 Evaluation MLLS Home MLTI MLLS Research Briefs         The Maine Learning with Laptop Studies is a project of the Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning in collaboration with The Institute for the Integration of Technology Into Teaching and Learning   Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning University of Maine at Farmington 252 Main St. Farmington, ME 04938 http://www.mcmel.org Mike Muir, Director mmuir@maine.edu 207-778-7179 Inservice Available   The Institute for the Integration of Technology Into Teaching and Learning University of North Texas Matthews Hall Rm. 316 1300 Highland Ave. Denton, TX 76203 http://www.iittl.unt.edu/ Gerald Knezek, Director gknezek@gmail.com 940-565-2057 Rhonda Christensen, Associate Director rhonda.christensen@gmail.com Created by Mike Muir Last updated: April 2, 2005