FIBER OPTIC NETWORK LINKS RURAL OKLAHOMA STUDENTS
State: Oklahoma
Grantee Name: Wheatlands Rural Educational Link Consortium
Borrower Name and ID: Pioneer Telephone Cooperative (OK 533)
Counties: Major, Kingfisher, Blaine, Logan & Alfalfa
Subject: Distance Learning network, Fiber Optics

State education departments are mandating that local school districts provide a wider range of classes in order to prepare students for in the next millennium. To meet these higher standards, Oklahoma residents are depending more than ever on the telecommunications infrastructure RUS borrowers have built as their on ramp to the information superhighway.

The Wheatlands Rural Educational Link Consortium (RELC) was created by eight school districts and one area vocational center to improve the quality of education in their rural communities. The consortium concluded that one of the most effective ways to broaden the range of class offerings to their students while meeting tougher state standards was through distance learning. In 1995, the RELC was awarded an RUS Distance Learning grant for $222 thousand. The local telephone company, Pioneer Telephone Cooperative, an RUS borrower, also lent their financial support to the project.

The grant money will be used to construct a fiber optic network connecting nine schools in eleven rural farming communities to the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Courses to be offered include foreign languages, music appreciation, world geography, and physiology. The state-of-the art system will eventually provide telemedicine links with the Oklahoma University Health Science Center and Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City.

In the past, RUS loans have helped Pioneer to build the advanced telecommunications infrastructure needed to accommodate the demand for new services such as distance learning networks. Pioneer is also providing the fiber optic service for RELC and other schools in northwest Oklahoma. According to Toni Pickle, educational TV coordinator at Pioneer, “Pioneer is turning on line more schools than any other telephone company in this state.”

Partnerships between RUS borrowers and grant recipients are forging the means which enable rural areas to achieve a quality of life equal to their urban counterparts in health care and educational opportunities.