State schools chief Tom Luna told lawmakers, "The next step is implementing a one-to-one ratio of mobile computing devices to students and teachers in every public high school in Idaho. This is a critical step in making sure every student has equal access to the best education opportunities." He said the devices will be demonstrated to lawmakers at a reception at the State Department of Education tomorrow afternoon. "The device has endless possibilities in every classroom," he said. "It becomes the textbook in every classroom, the calculator in math, the research tool in science, the word processor in English, and it's the portal to a world of information and knowledge."

The "one-to-one devices," meaning every student has one, will start being distributed to students in the fall of 2013, under the Students Come First phase-in schedule, with a third of high schools getting them each year. He said his 38-member technology task force recommended that the devices be laptop computers, not tablets or other devices. "An overwhelming number of our schools want these devices," Luna said; so far, three-quarters of high schools have requested to be in the first third to get them. "They want to participate now, not later," he said.