| The gap between those who have access
to computers and the Internet and those who don' t could spell trouble not only
for classroom learning today, but in turn for producing the kind of students who
are ready to compete for the jobs of tomorrow. By the year 2000,60 percent of
all jobs will require high-tech computer skills. Over the next seven years,
according to Bureau of Labor statistics, computer and technology related jobs
will grow by an astounding 70 percent. "We as a nation are missing the
opportunity of a lifetime," insists Riley. "The ability of all students to learn
at the highest levels with the greatest resources and have the promise of a
future of real opportunity-this is the potential of technology." Riley proposes dosing the gaps in technology access by providing discounted services for schools and libraries. The 1996 Telecommunications Act called for providing all K-12 public and nonprofit private schools, as well as libraries, with discounts-an Education Rate, or E-Rate-'-for telecommunication services, in May 1997, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to provide $2.25 billion a year in discounts ranging from 20 to 90 percent on a sliding scale, with the biggest discounts for the poorest schools. (The E-Rate covers Internet access and internal school connections, but not computers or software.) The first round of applications for the discounts ended in April 1998 with more than 30,000 received, in time for the beginning of the school year. With the E-Rate in place, it was hoped that most U. S. classrooms would be connected to the Internet (up from 44 percent now), including almost every classroom in the nation's 50 largest school districts. However, criticism from Congress and the telecommunications industry led the FCC in Jurm to reduce the amount available for 1998 to ＄1.3 billion. Still, the importance of connecting our schools to this vast and potentially powerful learning tool called the Internet is taking hold. In a June commencement address at MIT, the first by a sitting president to be broadcast on the Internet, President Clinton firmly emphasized the need to eliminate the digital divide. "Until every child has a computer in the classroom and the skills to use it... until every student can tap the enormous resources of the Internet... until every high tech company can find skilled workers to fill its high-tech jobs... America will miss the full promise of the Information Age," he noted. "The choice," he said, "is simple. We can extend opportunity today to all Americans or leave me behind. We can erase lines of inequity or etch them indelibly. We can accelerate the most powerful engine of growth and prosperity the world has ever known, or allow the engine to stall." |