Free laptops put Pascack Valley High School students in special class.

Byline: Walter Dawkins

May 3--Pascack Valley High School senior Samantha Carlin had an important paper due for her Advanced Placement European History class and didn't know where to start.

But thanks to her laptop computer -- provided by district taxpayers -- she not only completed the project. She got a B+.

"We have this online library called Questia, which has, like, every book you could basically want," said Samantha, 18, who will be attending Barnard College next year. "Having the laptops and access to all these wonderful sources online has really helped me academically this year."

Under the "1:1 Laptop eLearning Initiative," begun last November, every student and teacher in the regional school district is issued a laptop computer for use. It is one of only a dozen or so public high school programs of its kind in the country -- and …