A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

     FOR RELEASE            Contact:  David Thomas    February 8, 1997            (202) 401-1576 

In last year's State of the Union address, President Clinton proposed a $2 billion, five year Technology Literacy Challenge Fund to help schools use technology to improve teaching and learning. In his recent inaugural address, the president envisioned an America where "education will be every citizen's most prized possession."

"Our schools will have the highest standards in the world," President Clinton said. "The knowledge and power of the Information Age will be within reach not just of the few, but of every classroom, every library, every child."

New Mexico will receive $1.7 million from the U.S. Department of Education to help ensure that its students will have the basic skills needed to be technologically literate in the 21st century. In its first year, the fund totals $200 million. President Clinton has requested an increase to $425 million for fiscal year 1998.

According to a just issued report by the department's National Center for Education Statistics, the number of schools connected to the Internet has almost doubled since 1994, while over the same period, the number of classrooms with a direct link to the Internet has quadrupled.

"We're making real progress," Riley said. "Still, we clearly have along way to go before we can say that all students have the opportunities that new technologies can provide. I'm delighted that the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] is moving forward to assure that all schools will have affordable access to the Internet."

Overall, the administration's proposed FY98 budget requests $500 million for educational technology for the classroom -- about double the current appropriation --- to invest in hardware, education software and teacher training.

"This fund is an investment in our children and their future," Riley said. "Effective use of new technologies can broaden and strengthen the curriculum and provide every student with new tools to explore the world and to master challenging academic work."

The fund is the administration's major effort to address the president's four goals for educational technology:

1. all teachers will be trained to help students learn through computers and the information superhighway;
2. all students and teachers will have access to modern computers;
3. all schools and classrooms will be linked to the information superhighway; and
4. high quality software and online resources will be part of the curriculum in every school.

New Mexico will use the fund to leverage additional support from business and industry and other public and private entities, including museums, libraries, and institutions of higher education to use technology to improve New Mexico's schools.

In addition, the funds will be used to connect schools to the Internet, to assure compatibility of equipment throughout the state, and to provide technology for after school programs focusing on adult and family literacy.

To receive the award, New Mexico's Council on Educational Technology developed a comprehensive plan titled Road Map to School Improvement Part 2. The council will monitor the progress achieved under the grant.

The Technology Literacy Challenge Fund was created to help leverage state, local and private sector efforts to improve teaching and learning with the effective use of technology. It offers states the opportunity to provide school districts -- especially those with high rates of poverty -- with funds that will help them meet their most important technology needs.

New Mexico was joined by Mississippi and Illinois as the first three states to receive grants. They responded with long range, state wide technology plans that included strategies for achieving the administration's four goals, financing, targeting assistance to school districts that are the most in need, and placing technology in the classroom.

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