Internet Equity Challenges Schools

To make sure rural and inner city schoolchildren aren’t forgotten in the Information Age, Education Secretary Richard Riley urged regulators on Thursday to give free - not just discounted - Internet access and other communications services to schools and libraries.

“I am deeply concerned about the issue of equity. We already have a very large education gap between school districts that have a strong tax base and those that don’t,” said Riley at a news conference. “Some school districts are on the cutting edge of technology already. The majority are not nearly as fortunate.”

About half the nation’s public schools were linked to the Internet in October 1995, up from 35 percent one year earlier, according to survey the Education Department released earlier this year. However, only 9 percent of individual classrooms had access.

A new telecommunications law entitles schools, libraries and other groups to discounted rates for communications services. A board of federal and state regulators is considering how to implement that provision and will make a recommendation on Nov. 8.

But Riley and several lawmakers want the joint board to provide schools and libraries with a package of free services, such as electronic mail, access to the Internet and video conferencing for distance learning.

They also want the board to make a list of other services, not yet identified, that schools and libraries could get at discounted rates.

To provide what Riley envisions would be quite expensive and could raise telephone rates, warned Roy Neel, president of the United States Telephone Association, the telephone industry’s main trade organization.

“The joint board, the FCC and state regulators have a huge challenge to make sure schools can have these new services, but just as importantly, keep local telephone rates affordable and service quality high in a competitive environment,” Neel said.