| FOR RELEASE April 19, 1997 | Contact: David Thomas (202) 401-1576 |
In support of this goal, the president proposed a $2 billion, five year Technology Literacy Challenge Fund to help schools use technology to improve teaching and learning. The president has challenged the nation to connect every classroom and library to the Internet by the year 2000, and envisions an America where "education will be every citizen's most prized possession."
In its first year, the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund totals $200 million. President Clinton has requested an increase to $425 million for fiscal year 1998. Overall, the administration's proposed FY98 budget requests $500 million for educational technology for the classroom -- about double the current appropriation -- to invest in hardware, education software and teacher training.
"Our schools will have the highest standards in the world," Clinton said. "The knowledge and power of the Information Age will be within each not just of the few, but of every classroom, every library, every child."
According to a recent report by the department's National Center for Education Statistics, the number of schools connected to the Internet has almost doubled since 1994, while over the same period, the number of classrooms with a direct link to the Internet has quadrupled.
"Technology is an investment in our children and their future," Riley said. "Effective use of new technologies can broaden and strengthen the curriculum and provide every student with new tools to explore the world and to master challenging academic work."
The grant to Nebraska and all 50 states is aimed at achieving the president's four goals for educational technology:
"Achieving these goals," Riley said, "will require new partnerships and hard work, as well as planning and commitment. Through these awards and the upcoming FCC implementation of discounts for telecommunications for all schools and libraries, we hope to help states and communities move quickly to bring all students the resources and learning opportunities that technology can provide."
Riley said Nebraska plans to use the fund to ensure that all of its rural areas benefit. The state has developed an Interactive Distance Learning Pod system for distance learning, and half of Nebraska's students will benefit from using this system by 1999. The state already has been pursuing the development of technology with several other funding sources, including the U.S. Education Department's Technology Challenge Grant Program, which will help their future work in professional development and curriculum integration.
Nebraska's technology plan provides a comprehensive and exciting vision of how technology can be used to change the face of teaching and learning, so that educators can be true facilitators of student achievement to high standards.
The Technology Literacy Challenge Fund was created to help leverage state, local, and private sector efforts to improve teaching and learning with the effective use of technology. It offers states the opportunity to provide school districts -- especially those with high rates of poverty -- with funds that will help them meet their most important technology needs.
Nebraska now joins 20 other states as recipients of awards from the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund. They responded with long range, statewide technology plans that included strategies for achieving the administration's four goals, financing, targeting assistance to school districts that are the most in need, and placing technology in the classroom.
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