Caution in Computer Funding

With the FCC’s recent decision to create a special fund to link schools to the Internet and the Clinton administration’s bid to double the Department of Education’s funding for computer literacy, Washington is poised to send record numbers of computers into the nation’s classrooms.

This is mostly welcome news. Introduced in school districts after careful planning, computers can help level the educational playing field, making complex concepts accessible to students with various backgrounds and learning abilities. Used improperly, however, computers can become little more than very expensive baby sitters, providing students little educational benefit and potentially stripping districts of scarce resources. Studies show, for instance, that some programs hawked as “educational software” impart no more learning than a common video arcade game.

Because of the potential for misuse, Washington should consider attaching strings to the computer dollars it is handing out. One good vehicle for doing so is HR 1572, a bill introduced recently by Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.). It would require school districts receiving federal funding under the Schools Act of 1994 to train and assess teachers for computer literacy.

The most important step, however, is for school districts to take the initiative in designing innovative programs and then funding them through competitive grants offered by agencies like the National Science Foundation.

A role model could be the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, where teachers and scientists are now creating a World Wide Web site called “Virtual Canyon.” Using computerized video footage of a huge undersea canyon in Monterey Bay, students explore habitats and aquatic life and publish their results on the Web. Thus, in addition to learning about biology and marine ecology, students are able to develop marketable expertise in using computers as tools for communication and research.

But implementing this sort of technological learning nationally won’t be cheap: An extensive study completed in 1995 by McKinsey and Co. says costs would run about $109 billion to train teachers and install multimedia computers in all of our public school classrooms. That’s some price tag, but one potentially worth every penny in the long run.