Obama pushes ambitious Internet access plan for schools

[Playinghardball]

President Obama liked the idea laid out in a memo from his staff: an ambitious plan to expand high-speed Internet access in schools that would allow students to use digital notebooks and teachers to customize lessons like never before. Better yet, the president would not need Congress to approve it.

White House senior advisers have described the little-known proposal, announced earlier this summer under the name ConnectEd, as one of the biggest potential achievements of Obama’s second term.

There’s just one catch: The effort would cost billions of dollars, and Obama wants to pay for it by raising fees for mobile-phone users. Doing that relies on the Federal Communications Commission, an independent agency that has the power to approve or reject the plan.

Republicans vow to oppose any idea that raises costs for consumers, while others question whether it’s appropriate to use the FCC to fund an initiative that is better left to Congress’s authority.

More at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-pushes-ambitious-internet-access-plan/2013/08/13/646bf410-f321-11e2-bdae-0d1f78989e8a_story.html

Discovered on the ObamaDiary

[NYC_SKP]

1. I'm fine with it, provided it does what it claims to do.

We don't spend nearly enough on education and if we're to leave the details to the states then the least we can do is build out the digital infrastructure for schools and programs.

[Igel]

9. How can that subject line possibly make sense?

You can't know it'll do what it claims to do until it's already in place, lots of $ spent, and an entrenched bureaucracy behind it.

It's like the "I won't sign this bill if it adds one dime to the deficit" kind of gibberish. You sign today; it adds to the deficit you'll know in a few years. What, if it winds up adding to the deficit you'll retroactively unsign the bill?

There's a lot of schools that are one-to-one. It's a nice trend for those desperate to have some improvement in education. The research on how much it actually improves achievement tend to be short-term studies. They're pointless. We need studies done at campuses that went 1-1 4 and 5 years ago.

Otherwise it's a fad and talking point.

I would say, though, that the impact will be disparate by SES and that means race. A lot of schools are already 1-1; many more are already Internet savvy. This isn't a surcharge to help all kids because those kids need no help; it's a surcharge to help a specific stratum of kids even though it's being billed as for "all" kids.

[Demo_Chris]

2. Another regressive tax. No thanks. nt

[PowerToThePeople]

3. So NSA can halt those future student uprisings before they every get started.

Yea USA!!

GO TEAM FASCIST!!!!!

[earthside]

4. What a crappy idea.

Let Bill Gates pay for it.

After all, in the classroom this is mostly about displacing real teachers with instruction by computer.

There is a reason for Bill Gates's involvement in education policy: $$$$$$

Since mobile telephone use is ubiquitous these days, this does basically amount to a tax on us and a subsidy for computer, software and internet-provider corporations.

Sometimes I wonder if Pres. Obama gets it --- most of us in the working middle class are being nickeled-and-dimed to death. Frankly, we can't afford yet another fee on top of all the other fees the schools place on us.

[msongs]

5. pay for it by charging internet providers for the access to the marks...errr...kids nt

[FarCenter]

6. There is nothing students need to learn that can't be put on a $100 hard drive and mailed to school

You can get a terabyte USB drive for $70. It will hold way more than any K-12 school library. Just load it up with the entire curriculum and resources needed for the year and mail it to each school in August.

There is no need for internet access by K-12 school students.

[Brickbat]

7. Access does nothing if your school district doesn't have the money for equipment or instructors.

[KoKo]

8. Perhaps that's the point. Let them learn from Software Programs

Less Teachers... After all (they would say) most five years olds know how to use a computer these days. Just design software to teach and all you need is a "supervisor" not a Teacher who communicates. The Software will be the Teacher.

You might eventually even go to lowcost Robots who can do the supervision. They won't need Retirement Plans and Healthcare.

It works....if you think Bill Gates and the rest rule the Future. "Look Forward...Not Backward."

[Scurrilous]

10. K & R

[TransitJohn]

11. Gotta start those national security dossiers on citizens early