FOR RELEASE: Contact: David Thomas

December 10, 1997 (202) 401-1576

GORE, RILEY ANNOUNCE STATES TO RECEIVE $225 MILLION INCREASE FROM TECHNOLOGY LITERACY CHALLENGE FUND

Vice President Al Gore and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley announced today that states will receive $425 million from the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF) to expand efforts to integrate technology into teaching and learning to ensure that students are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

"One of our highest priorities is to bring all of our children and schools into the Information Age -- so that for the first time in American history children in the most isolated rural towns, the most comfortable suburbs and the poorest inner city schools have the same access to the same universe of knowledge," said Vice President Gore. " These crucial new funds will help us reach that goal."

The technology fund is a $2 billion, five-year program designed to help schools use technology to improve teaching and learning. Now in its second year, the fund has more than doubled from $200 million to $425 million for the current fiscal year. States will receive a total of $425 million in grants for the program this year, an increase of $225 million.

These grants will help states achieve four critical national goals to better use technology in schools:

• all teachers will be trained to help students learn through computers and the information superhighway;

• all students and teachers will have access to modern computers;

• all schools and classrooms will be linked to the information superhighway; and,

• high-quality software and online resources will be part of the curriculum in every school.

"These grants will help ensure that states meet the President's challenge of putting modern technology into America's classrooms," said Secretary Riley. "But putting technology into classrooms is not enough. These grants also invest in our nation's teachers and will help give them the skills they need to fully integrate technology into their day to day curriculum."

The technology fund was created to help stimulate 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 with funds that will help them meet their most important technology needs.

Riley praised states for developing long-range, statewide technology plans that included strategies for achieving their educational goals, financing, targeting assistance to school districts that are the most in need, and placing technology in the classroom.

These grants are funded by the FY1998 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill which Congress approved with bipartisan support and President Clinton signed into law in November.