One sees all sorts of oddities at Maine’s State House, but depending on the conclusions of a legislative commission, lawmakers may in the near future have computers on each of their desks from which they could e-mail each other about why giving laptops to all seventh-graders in Maine is such a terrible idea.

Even without the computer-for-every-lawmaker idea, Maine this week still saw legislators standing amid the State House’s new multi-million dollar technology upgrade, solemnly concluding that students should not get the laptops Gov. King proposed. How can legislators think they need new computers to download bills faster while telling Maine students not to worry about missing that advanced biology class on-line?

The technology portion of the State House/State Office Building overhaul will cost approximately $6 million. The annual cost of the governor’s plan to give each seventh-grader a portable computer is also, coincidentally, $6 million, and would be funded from a one-time establishment of a trust fund. The ongoing costs from the State House computers would come, presumably, from the General Fund. The two plans aren’t exactly comparable, of course, except in this: Both are or soon will be essential to keeping pace with the expectations — in fact, the requirements — of a world increasingly dependent on and benefitting from computers.

Just as the State House computer system will provide increased access for lawmakers and the public to the details of the political process, computers in schools would exponentially increase the learning opportunities for students. What is remarkable about the governor’s plan is that all students will be able to benefit, without regard to parents’ paychecks. This state has increased education spending by more than $100 million in the last few years trying to bring equity to school funding and it still isn’t there. The computer proposal is equity, in the traditional sense of a public education for all.

Some legislators like the laptop idea but don’t think Maine should be first, instead wanting to see what other states will do. On some issues, that’s not a bad idea. On this one, it would be costly. To understand why, just look north to Acadia University in Nova Scotia, which five years ago founded the Acadia Advantage, making it the first college in North America to provide laptops to incoming freshmen. Computer firms like IBM and 3-com responded instantly, offering benefits to support the plan.

If Acadia happened to be 10th rather than first, those same computer companies would not be nearly as interested in helping out. For Gov. King’s plan, National Semiconductor already has offered to provide free computer instruction to Maine teachers; other major firms have expressed interest in helping out with the hardware. But they will not follow through unless Maine legislators show some enthusiasm and act as if they believe there is nothing wrong with Maine leading the nation in this pursuit.

Upgrading technology at the State House needed to be done and generally had public support. It is inexplicable that lawmakers can see their own needs but not understand the value of a comparable plan for Maine’s children.