Technology Literacy Challenge Fund FY2001 request for $450 million: This fund supports grassroots efforts at the state and local level to put the future at the fingertips of every child -- with modern computers, high quality educational software, trained teachers, and connections to the information superhighway. Since 1996, states have received $1.475 billion. The Challenge Fund has helped schools integrate technology to reach challenging academic standards. The FY01 $25 million increase would support the Administration's proposal for reauthorization of the TLCF to focus funds on increasing the capacity of teachers in high-poverty, low-performing schools to use technology effectively in their classrooms.

Next Generation Technology Innovation
The FY2001 request for $170 million: This new program combines the best elements and builds on the success of the Technology Innovation Challenge Grants and Star Schools to expand knowledge about, and develop new cutting-edge applications of, educational technologies and telecommunications for teaching and learning. Three competitions for new awards are proposed for FY01: Advanced Technology Applications, Challenging Coursework Online and the Mississippi Delta Initiative. $52.2 million is proposed for the first year Next Generation awards, $3.8 million for evaluation and $107 million would be for continuation grants.

Advanced Technology Applications for Education
The National Academy of Sciences, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and many other groups have concluded that investment in educational research-particularly research aimed at ensuring effective use of new technology-is inadequate. This $32 million program would support research and development initiatives that advance state-of-the-art educational technology applications. The goal of the program is to advance our fundamental understanding of how technology can be used to improve teaching and learning as well as to produce hardware and software prototypes. Awardees will conduct research and development that combine subject matter expertise, insights from the learning sciences and advances in computer and information sciences. Examples of the types of projects supported would include intelligent tutoring systems that incorporate speech recognition, simulation-based instruction, and wireless devices for student research and data collection.

Challenging Coursework Online
The FY2001 budget includes $10 million for a Challenging Coursework Online initiative. This program will fund competitive grants for the development of high quality, web-based Advanced Placement, second language, and possibly other courses of interest to a large number of schools. Many schools in rural areas and inner cities want to offer AP courses, but are not able to do so because they cannot afford the investment in staff and materials when only a small number of students want the course. In addition, many schools want to provide second-language instruction (including English as a second language) but software producers find it unprofitable to invest significant funds in developing materials since it is difficult and expensive to reach this diverse and fragmented market. This initiative will address both kinds of problems by funding applied research projects that will allow software developers to form partnerships with experienced educators, local schools and state departments of education. Grants of up to three years will allow these partnerships to develop innovative instructional uses of the new technologies including such things as online simulations.

Mississippi Delta Initiative
The FY2001 budget includes $10 million for a targeted demonstration project to provide training to middle school teachers in the Mississippi Delta region. Research suggests that middle school is an especially critical point for learning the technology-related skills that students will need to be successful in high school and beyond. The program will use a "train-the-trainers" approach that will prepare one or several teachers from each school to be technology leaders, serve as resident experts, and assist other teachers in their schools or districts. Awards would be restricted to applicants located in the Mississippi Delta.

Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Program
The FY2001 $78 million request (under Next Generation Technology Innovation program) is for continuation grants only. Since FY95, 96 multi-district and multi-state projects have been funded in 46 states involving 744 partners, 381 businesses, 220 colleges and universities, and 520 community-based organizations and government agencies demonstrating the innovative uses of computers, networking and multimedia across the curriculum. These grants have generated $1.3 billion in matching commitments. $146 million in FY00 will fund continuation grants, earmarks and some new projects.

Community Technology Centers
FY2001 request for $100 million. This program will help students and adults who do not have computers at home to link learning at school with learning anywhere through technology as well as bring the power of computers and information age resources to those with the greatest need. These grants fund technology learning centers in low- income communities in public housing facilities, community centers, libraries, and other educational facilities. $10 million in FY99 funded 40 grants to create 100 centers in urban and rural areas, targeted to economically distressed communities such as empowerment zones and enterprise communities. $32.5 million in FY00 will fund approximately 75 new grants resulting in an additional 350 centers. The $67.5 million increase proposed in FY01 would support an additional 280 new grants to fund up to 1,000 centers that would help address the digital divide.

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology
FY2001 request for $150 million: Over the next ten years, two million new teachers will need to be hired and trained to use technology. To better affect the skills and effectiveness of this next cohort of teachers for 21st Century schools, $75 million in FY99 grants were awarded to colleges, school districts, and state education agencies involving more than 1,350 partnerships with high-tech companies and non-profit organizations. 225 grants were awarded in three different categories to support planning, implementation, and the development of statewide initiatives and other national efforts to integrate technology in teacher preparation programs. This program will help train 400,000 teachers over three years. $75 million is available in FY00 for continuation awards and to fund approximately 95 new projects. The FY01 request would support 175 new capacity building awards to stimulate state and local initiatives for campus-wide teaching reform, 120 new implementation and catalyst grants, and 167 implementation and catalyst continuation grants.

Star Schools Program
The FY2001 $35 million request (under Next Generation Technology Innovation program) is for continuation grants only. These projects have helped to improve instruction in mathematics, science and foreign languages, literacy skills and vocational education in under-served areas through partnerships that develop, construct, acquire, maintain and operate telecommunications, audio, visual equipment and facilities. More than one million students and their teachers in 50 states and territories participate in this program. $45 million was allocated for FY99 and $50 million is available for FY00.

Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships
FY2001 request for $30 million: Rapid advances in technology now make it possible for education to be delivered anytime and anywhere, creating new opportunities to reach individuals who cannot easily access traditional campus-based postsecondary education as well as others for whom traditional courses are a poor match with their education or training needs. The Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships program supports projects that improve technology-based learning programs for individuals such as the disabled, dislocated workers who need to acquire new skills including individuals making the transition from welfare to work, and others who do not have easy access to campus-based postsecondary education. In FY99 $10 million funded 29 grants to partnerships of independent agencies, organizations, or institutions, including institutions of higher education, community organizations, businesses, and other types of public or private organizations. $23.2 million is available in FY00 for continuation grants and several new projects. The FY01 request would support an additional 45 new projects.

Interagency Education Research Initiative
FY2001 request for $20 million: The President's overall FY01 budget provides $50 million (of which the U.S. Department of Education would contribute $20 million) to build on the success of the IERI launched last year. This unprecedented partnership of the DoEd, NSF, and NICHD is supporting large-scale, interdisciplinary studies. This investment will deepen understanding of how different types of students learn, how new knowledge about the human brain can help improve learning, and how best to incorporate new technology. Strategies for improving instruction will be tested at a scale that can provide statistically significant results and ensure that research results are communicated effectively to local school districts. The goal of this research effort is to improve pre-K through 12 student learning and achievement in reading, mathematics and science. The work is intended to benefit students who, early on, are deemed to be at risk of school failure and who fail to acquire the higher-level skills needed to compete in the technology-driven workplaces of the 21st century. Particular attention will be given to the use of information and computer technologies to promote improvements in teaching and learning.

Regional Technology in Education Consortia (R*TECs)
FY2001 request for $10 million: This program supports regional consortia that help states, districts, and schools integrate technology with teaching and learning. The R*TECs provide professional development, technical assistance, and dissemination of information on the various types and effective uses of hardware, software, and electronic networks in order to help students meet challenging academic standards. The R*TECs have received $10 million in appropriations each year since 1995.

E-Rate
On February 8, 1996, the President signed a bold reform of the nation's telecommunications laws that included an amendment to provide schools and libraries discounts on telecommunications services (such as phone service, internal connections, and Internet access). $2.25 billion is now available annually for this program administered by the Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) of the Federal Communications Commission. The discounts range from 20% to 90%, depending on poverty and geographic location; the average discount is 60 percent. The E-rate will ensure that no school (public, private or parochial) or library is left behind in the information age. In year one (January 1998-June 1999), the SLD distributed a total of $1.66 billion to 25,785 applicants (approx. 81% of public schools applied for funding). In year two the FCC voted to fund the E-Rate at $2.25 billion annually, which is a $900 million increase over the previous year. In year two (July 1999-June 2000), the SLD distributed a total of $1.9 billion to 31,127 applicants. In year three, the SLD received 36,000 applications requesting a total of $4.72 billion in funding.