[Bridging_the_digital_divide] e-Rate claims to bridge the digide

[Jason Barkeloo]

Schools achieving a dream: Near-universal Net access Despite its 
problems, E-rate bridges digital divide

By Greg Toppo
USA TODAY

  Cameron Independent School District is one of those tiny, rural school 
systems where the superintendent is named Maxie and he only has four 
schools to worry about.

Eighty miles northeast of Austin, Cameron has only 1,682 students. But 
if you paired up kids and computers, there'd nearly be one for every 
other student -- higher than in most wealthy suburban districts. This 
fall, every classroom in town will get a 42-inch plasma-screen TV 
bolted to the wall so teachers can surf the Web with students, show 
Powerpoint presentations or just watch a DVD.

The Internet connection in every classroom comes compliments of the 
federal E-rate program, says Steele Cooley, the district's technology 
director. And while it can't be used for computers or TVs -- just for 
the infrastructure necessary to get schools wired to the Web -- E-rate 
frees up ''tens of thousands of dollars each year,'' Cooley says, 
allowing schools to use tax receipts for classroom gear. ''It's been an 
ongoing, driving force in our technology.''

Despite its problems -- including waste, fraud and mismanagement, 
according to federal investigators, who plan a series of hearings on 
Capitol Hill next week -- E-rate has been a dazzling success in 
thousands of public schools and libraries nationwide, advocates say.

''It's helped us to close the digital divide,'' says Anita Givens, 
Texas' educational technology director. ''We're not there yet, but 
we've made tremendous progress.''

The program, paid for by a small fee on phone bills, has generated 
$12.9 billion since 1998. Advocates say E-rate has helped schools and 
libraries, especially in rural areas, accomplish what might seem an 
impossible goal: near-universal Internet access.

Between 1996 and 2002, the percentage of Internet-wired schools rose 
from 65% to 99%, according to federal statistics. The percentage of 
wired classrooms rose from 14% to 92%; likewise, the percentage of 
Internet-connected libraries, from 28% to 95%.

Educators say the Internet is vital to help young people do homework, 
conduct research and compete in a global economy.

''Technology is something you have to have, and poor school districts 
like us cannot afford it,'' says Cameron Superintendent Maxie Morgan.

The program helps schools pay for all telecommunications, including 
ongoing phone expenses. By reducing these costs, E-rate has allowed 
schools to upgrade their computer systems and spend what little money 
they have on things they couldn't otherwise afford.

''The program, in some respects, has been wildly successful,'' says 
Mary Kusler of the American Association of School Administrators.

Anita Wiseman, principal of North Lewis Elementary School in New 
Iberia, La., says E-rate helped the school pay its ''astronomical'' 
monthly phone charges of $200 to $300.

  ''We were always in the red when it came to our phone bill,'' she says.

  It also has revitalized public libraries, says Carrie Lowe of the 
American Library Association. ''Despite the challenges, E-rate has been 
a huge success for public libraries.''

Libraries get only 5% of E-rate funds, but she says more people use the 
facilities now because of the free Internet access many now provide.

But critics complain that small communities are often at a disadvantage 
because they don't have trained technology coordinators to write the 
detailed proposals that E-rate requires.

''Learning all of the ins and outs of telecommunications and discounts, 
that's a steep learning curve,'' says Givens, who adds that when E-rate 
debuted, many officials in small districts ''didn't know the difference 
between what we call POTS and PANS: Plain Old Telephone Service and the 
Pretty Awesome Neat Stuff.''

Others complain that E-rate leaves middle-class districts behind, since 
they're ''not poor enough to get the help, but they're not rich enough 
to get it themselves,'' says Givens.

Della Matthis, Alaska's E-rate coordinator, says E-rate allows isolated 
villages to provide the same courses other students take for granted.

''It also means that kids do not have to be hauled off to boarding 
schools to get advanced education,'' she says. ''We bring the education 
to them.''

E-rate also brought Internet connections to villages themselves, she 
says. ''Suddenly, the demand for not just telephone lines, but for 
actual, honest-to-God broadband connectivity, has gone up,'' she says.

Critics say E-rate's generous subsidies, which pay for as much as 90% 
of connectivity costs, are too tempting to crooked technology 
companies, which sell schools fancier equipment than they need. But 
while vendors in Alaska, at least, may be making a profit, Matthis 
says, ''we don't have any gold-plated servers in place that I know 
of.''

Congress in 2005 is scheduled to reauthorize E-rate. A few opponents 
will likely propose revamping it, but few observers think the 
accounting problems will sink it altogether.

''It needs changing, it needs tightening,'' says Dennis Pierce, 
managing editor of eSchool News. But he says even critics agree that 
it's a worthy program.

Ultimately, he says, E-rate ''has provided so much benefit, and there 
would be such an uproar, that the program is safe.''

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040609/6270228s.htm
---

Jason Barkeloo
President
TouchSmart Publishing
http://www.touchsmart.net
tele 513.225.8765


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