Much to the disappointment of students (and perhaps teachers) everywhere, a new school year will soon start.  But Google’s celebrating something related to education this afternoon, as it’s secured the Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium as yet another Google Apps partner.

Miriam Schneider wrote on the Official Google Enterprise Blog, "[W]e’re happy to announce that The Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium (MEEC) will make Google Apps for Education available to 1.4 million students in the state.  MEEC is comprised of the University System of Maryland, Maryland Higher Education Commission and Maryland Department of Education, and provides software resources and services to its 194 members across the state."

There’s more, too.  Schneider later continued, "In addition to Google Apps, this agreement also enables MEEC member institutions – for example University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) – to license Google Postini Services such as Google Message Security, for use with the existing email infrastructure to enhance Spam filtering and email security for students, faculty and staff."

So it seems that all sorts of people will soon get an introduction to a significant array of Google’s services.

Anyway, Maryland’s move means that Google has secured deals with a total of four states.  And since the time between announcements has decreased a bit, it’s possible a sort of domino effect is starting to take hold.

It should be interesting to see which state decides to try Google’s software next (and how long it takes to do so).