There are thousands of buildings in this country with millions of people in them who have no telephones, no cable television and no reasonable prospect of broadband services. They're called schools." When it comes to ensuring universal service, our schools are the most impoverished institution in society.One of Gore's contributions to the ever evolving policy surrounding the building of the NII is the Agenda for Action. A principle concept of the Agenda is Universal Service. Building on the Communications Act of 1934, the Administration insists that all Americans must have access to the National Information Infrastructure. Of course, this includes the school system. Gore has challenged private industry to link every classroom in every school in the United States to the National Information Infrastructure within the next five years as part of the Administration's Goals 2000 program. This represents a significant challenge. According to a recent study conducted by the Department of Education, only 3% of classrooms in the U.S. are connected to the internet.
--Reed Hundt, Head of the FCC.
With the advent of advanced information technologies that play such an important role in educating our children and training our workforce, the Administration is concerned that the traditional concept of universal service may leave many Americans in lower income and rural communities bereft of needed access to communications and information networks and unprepared for today's job market. The Administration recognizes the importance of preserving and enhancing universal service to avoid creating a society of information haves and have nots. Through the Agenda for Action the Administration has held public hearings across the country to receive input on whether and how to expand the concept of universal service and how to ensure open access. The Administration is working with NII stakeholders to fulfill the President's pledge to connect every school, clinic, hospital, and library to the NII by the year 2000. [source]Gore is depending on private industry to connect classrooms and was pleased to hear recently that some companies participating in the communications revolution are now talking about voluntarily linking every classroom in their service areas to the NII. [source] Overall, the performance of private companies has been inconsistent thus far, but there are reasons to avoid dismissing Gore's optimistic view.
A success story in North Carolina:
A unique cooperative effort between educational institutions and telecommunications companies and an NTIA grant has enabled Appalachian State University in North Carolina to explore the possibilities of advanced communication technologies. In 1989 ASU approached AT&T, Southern Bell, and Bell South, each of whom were interested in improving the education of K-12 students in rural areas. It was decided that ASU would provide the technological infrastructure and help to develop a more positive educational environment in the schools selected. The corporations, who were interested in getting students comfortable with new technology so that ultimately they would be able to compete in the job market, agreed to provide the funding for equipment. In designing their project, one of the developers recalls, "we ignored what we already knew existed and focused on what we thought would be ideal."In 1991 a ten-year educational/corporate partnership was formalized. This effort has resulted in three K-12 schools being linked to the NII and wealth of knowledge regarding K-12 hook-ups and government/business teams. Only time will tell whether other companies participate in the effort to provide access to every K-12 classroom.
