Reading, Keyboarding, Arithmetic

Once, a long, long time ago, it was slide rules. Then calculators. Now the hot item among the juvenile intelligentsia in schools across the country is the notebook computer.

Unfortunately, notebooks cost more than many moms and dads are comfortable spending.

So Irvine-based Toshiba America Information Systems, which makes one of every four notebooks sold in the U.S. and wants to increase its grip on the market, has decided to make it a bit more affordable to equip the student body with its machines. Just in time for those planning the 1997-98 school year, the company has announced a Notebooks for Schools program, modeled after a successful venture of the same name by Toshiba’s Australian computer unit.

The program is open to all private and public schools, from kindergarten through 12th grade, although program chief Tom Healey says parents and school officials should think long and hard about equipping kids younger than fifth grade.

As with programs for purchasing math and science calculators, Notebooks offers specially priced Toshiba portable computers to participants. The Windows 95 computers are loaded with a batch of Microsoft word processing and spreadsheet and data organizing software not normally available as standard equipment on Toshiba’s machines, and they are equipped with either a standard fax-phone modem or a special local area network modem for schools that have their own networks.

Schools have to sign up directly with Toshiba to participate, says Healey. Once they do, they can either refer students and parents to a local Toshiba retailer or acquire the computers directly and resell them, rent them or loan them to students--depending on their budgets.

Since an unofficial kickoff of the regular program in April, Healey said, five private schools and 14 public school districts around the country have signed on. The only Southern California participant so far is Anaheim’s Fairmont Private School for academic achievers.

The four Toshiba color notebooks available through the special program still aren’t cheap, starting at $1,500 and topping out at $2,499. But that’s up to $700 below a similarly equipped laptop assembled by a private purchaser, Healey said.

A Toshiba Web page with information about the program is at https://www.education.toshiba.com.

John O’Dell can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at [email protected]