To the Tutored Go the Spoilsin the news: buying better SAT scores; Californians lean toward funding education; the digital divide
Funding Schools over Vouchers?
E. J. Dionne, in a 9/25/00 op-ed in the Washington Post, remarks
on two ballot initiatives in California, one to provide vouchers for all
students in the state, the other to make it easier to pass bond-issues
for school renovation and building. With more support for the bond-issue
initiative, Dionne speculates that supporting public education--rather
than tax cuts--may be back in vogue. http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16489-2000Sep25.html.
Digital Divide Panic
Leave it to a technology consulting group to declare that people without
Internet access and broadband multimedia will become the digital age equivalent
of functional illiterates. But maybe that kind of hyperbole is necessary
when testifying before Congress, as Gartner Group's chief executive Michael
Fleisher was doing when he made the claim. Or maybe it's not hyperbole,
but a long range economic, civic, and cultural equality matter. It's hard
to tell from the coverage that blared only the most startling claims without
providing much of the underlying argument. The CNN wrap up of this Reuter's
wire story includes links to other "digital divide" stories. To go to CNN's
story: http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/10/02/internet.usa.reut/index.html.
To see the Gartner report in full, and a transcript of Fleisher's comments,
go to: http://gartner5.gartnerweb.com/public/static/techies/digital_d/digital_d.html
(Posted 9/25/00)