Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron has obtained assurances from at least 58 superintendents that they’re ready to press forward with laptops in high schools this fall, giving her confidence that a deal can be struck with Apple. The deal will allow the school system to “reach a minimum level of 8,400 students and teachers necessary for Apple to rent laptops for $300 apiece per year, with training and other perks included,” reporters Foster’s Online. For a while, it appeared that the statewide experiment with iBooks would end in the seventh and eighth grades after lawmakers adjourned without providing funding to expand the program into high schools.