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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The D.C. Statehood Green Party
has joined the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and other
organizations and proponents of quality education in criticizing the
decision by President George W. Bush to cut funding for technological
literacy -- education in the computer skills increasingly necessary to
function in the modern world.
"Bush's budget for fiscal year 2003 would widen the 'Digital
Divide,' aggravating the gap between those with basic skills and those
without," said Dean Murville, chair of the D.C. Statehood
Green Party's Digital Empowerment Committee.
"The cuts will drastically limit the ability of young people in
D.C. and in cities and rural areas throughout the U.S. to compete for
jobs and to participate and prosper in the 21st century. Older citizens
will likewise lose the kind of training enabling them to keep up with
modern information technology. Information technology is now integral to
the communication and transactions that people conduct on a daily basis
at home and at work. We must recognize access to information as a
fundamental right in 21st century democracy."
President Bush's budget would eliminate the Technology Opportunities
Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Community
Technology Centers, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. It
would also severely reduce funding for the Housing and Urban Development
Department's Neighborhood Networks Initiative.
In late 2001, only one in four of the U.S.'s poorest households were
online; Latino (31.8%) and African American (39.8%) households lag
behind their white counterparts (59.9%), according to research compiled
by the Benton Foundation.
"It's an issue of basic human rights and equality," said Jay
Marx, a member of the D.C. Statehood Green Party's steering committee.
"We're in danger of creating a generation of minimally educated,
minimally literate young people. Along with cuts in athletics and arts
and music programs, the closing of libraries, and underfunding for
school supplies, we're seeing the sacrifice of computer literacy in the
communities that need these the most."
"Instead, we get standardized testing and teachers required to
teach test preparation. The new goal is test scores and statistics --
that's not education! It's a disgrace and a betrayal of our young
people."
This poses a special danger to the District of Columbia, which lacks
legislative autonomy, and which Congress and the White House have used
as a laboratory experiment for regressive policies.
"It would probably cost, based on a conservative estimate of $100
per internet appliance (not accounting for large volume contract
discounts), about $25-$30 million and, with $22 per month for commercial
ISP charges, about $5.5 million per year to provide low income D.C.
residents with access," noted Dean Murville, basing the estimates
on figures from the National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA)
reports series "Falling through the Net: Toward Digital
Inclusion".
"That's a much better investment than proposed vendor-driven remote
digital camera technology to spy on residents and tourists, and
ultimately a more cost-effective crime prevention strategy, not to
mention economic development strategy."
Contact:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com
More Information:
The D.C. Statehood Green Party http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights http://www.civilrights.org
DigitalEmpowerment.org http://www.digitalempowerment.org/devel/default.asp
Federal Retrenchment on the Digital Divide: Potential National
Impact.
Published by the Benton Foundation, March 2002.
http://www.benton.org/policybriefs/brief01.pdf
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