April 6, 2000 Hearing Information

Joint Hearing
Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee
Senate Education Committee

 

Bridging The Digital Divide: Making The Most of California’s Schools & Libraries

 

Thursday, April 6, 2000
9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Room 3191

 

AGENDA

 

I. Opening Remarks
  • Senator Debra Bowen, Chairwoman, Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee
  • Senator Dede Alpert, Chairwoman, Senate Education Committee
II. Roundtable Discussion

The purpose of today’s hearing is to discuss the digital divide in the context of California’s public schools and libraries, to learn about the extent of computer and internet access in California schools, whether teachers adequately trained to utilize this technology, and much more.

As a part of that discussion, the committees will hear about efforts to bridge the digital divide that are already underway and what role or roles state government can play most effectively to help bridge that gap.

  • American Electronics Association – Chris Shultz
  • PowerUp – Chantelle Walker
  • Southwest Los Angeles Preschool Through College Collaborative – William R. Blischke
  • Association of California School Administrators – John Fleischman
  • California School Librarian Association – Jeff Frost
  • California Department of Education – Nancy Sullivan
  • Governor's Office -- Michael Ricketts, Deputy Secretary of Fiscal Policy

 

Bridging The Digital Divide: Making The Most Out Of California's Schools And Libraries

 

Background Paper

 

The "digital divide" – the gap between the technology haves and have-nots – is partially a reflection of the natural progression of technology adoption (i.e. the wealthy are more likely to adopt a new, expensive technology). However, in the area of public education the digital divide is a particular cause for concern because those who don’t have access to technology will likely lead to a lower quality education and fewer higher educational and employment opportunities.

The recognition of a relationship between technology access and education quality is probably as old as education itself, but one of the early leaders in the effort to bridge the "computer gap" was actually West Virginia, which in 1991 implemented a program to comprehensively provide computers in elementary classrooms.

Earlier this year, the Governor of Maine proposed to give every seventh grader a laptop computer with Internet service – something that’s probably cost prohibitive in California, since Maine’s entire population of 1.2 million people is roughly equivalent to the population of Sacramento County.

California has its own initiatives underway to address the issue of technology in the classroom. The Digital High School Educational Technology Grant program was created in 1997 to provide all high school students with basic computer skills. This year, the Governor has proposed to augment this program with an additional $364 million for computer acquisition and teacher training.

Locally-initiated programs have been implemented throughout the state as well. For example, San Diego’s South Bay Union School District has hooked up the homes of 1,000 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students to the Internet through their television sets. Non-profit organizations are also playing a role in bridging the divide. In its January hearing, the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee heard from the Latino Issues Forum, which described its program to provide poor and minority students with computers in their home and school, as well as training and mentoring services for the parents of these students.

In the wake of two hearings held by the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee and the Select Committee on Economic Development, a number of questions have been raised as to how the state can both help coordinate the public and private digital divide efforts and how it can get the most bang for the taxpayer bucks it may spend to help bridge the divide. Among the issues worthy of exploring:

  • Is the state using its existing resources as completely and efficiently as possible?
  • If a school doesn’t provide after-school access to its computers, what are the barriers to allowing an organization to use the facilities to provide computer skills to adults or other groups of people who want help crossing the digital divide?
  • Are the barriers to accomplishing this primarily statutory or financial?
  • Is it cost effective to provide tax credits to spur in-home computer/Internet usage, or would the state reach more people by paying the operational costs of keeping a library open for longer hours or teaching classes at public or private facilities where the capital costs have already been paid for?

During the March 14 hearing of the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee and the Select Committee on Economic Development, testimony was provided indicating that:

  • Eight times as much money has been spent on equipment than on training.
  • Children need training and mentoring to help them learn and to work through the many frustrating aspects of computer use.
  • The state would be best served by spending its limited resources to keep libraries open for longer hours or use school facilities that aren’t used at night for computer training.
  • The California Research Bureau estimates it would cost $83 million to keep libraries open from 6-9 at night, Monday through Friday.

The private sector is also working to bridge the digital divide in a variety of ways, one of which is to provide free Internet access to people who agree to wade through on-screen advertisements. A March 13, 2000, Sacramento Bee newspaper article by David Hoye entitled "Free Net Services Growing" found that:
"One of the latest entrants is BlueLight.com, a cooperative effort between Yahoo! and Kmart. There's a trend building, especially when you lump in employees of Ford Motor Co., Intel and other firms that have decided to provide employees with virtually free computers and Internet access. Jupiter Communications recently predicted that by 2003 about 13 million Americans will connect to the Internet without paying one red cent. I think that's a conservative estimate. Don't be surprised if, by this time next year, we're all taking free Internet access for granted.

"Not tempting enough? How about free DSL? That's right. Broadband Digital Group (www.freedsl.com) plans to give away DSL service beginning in April. DSL, or digital subscriber line, is a high-speed ‘broadband’ technology that links computer users to the Internet over traditional phone lines at speeds that can be a hundred times faster than dial-up connections. Such DSL lines typically cost upwards of $40 per month."
In a January 2000 report entitled "Profile of California Computer and Internet Users" by Rosa Maria Moller, Ph.D., the California Research Bureau reported the following statistics regarding the "Three Most Important Internet Uses by People with Internet Access at Home":

  • Email 64.4%
  • Research for school 13.6%
  • To search for information 6.8%
  • To check news & sports 4.9%
  • To do job-related tasks 4.6%
  • Other 1.9%
  • To shop, pay bills, etc. 1.7%
  • To search for jobs 1.2%
  • Games, entertainment 0.7%
  • For making phone calls 0.3%

Committee Address

Staff