Topic: Getting

Yes, we do need a more competitive telecommunications industry. This can happen if Congress (1) creates incentives for all competitors to wire and connect schools, homes, and libraries with educational technology and products; and (2) encourages and permits all providers of telecommunications services to freely provide them. Of course, we need to monitor the process to see that our national objectives are being met by this market incentive approach.

Telephone lines should connect every classroom to the Internet and other electronic services. Students would then gain access to resources few schools can afford; they could then communicate with students and experts around the world. It also will support the teachers – perhaps the only group of professionals in our society expected to do their jobs with no office, no telephone, no privacy.

If we leave the market alone, we will not achieve universal access, the only way to attain equity of opportunity for teachers and students. Connecting every public school classroom and library to the developing superhighway is a legitimate goal of public policy. Adopting regulatory policies that will advance this cause is crucial.

Critics would leave it to cash-starved local communities and school systems to choose whether or not to pay the tolls for education on the information superhighway. In their model, communities can decide either to increase teachers’ salaries, buy new textbooks, or cruise the infobahn. This country should not accept such an either/or proposition. Such a course would hobble American education, especially in rural communities and inner cities. We strongly support moving rapidly away from central regulation and toward a competitive market where customer choice drives the system. However, we also strongly believe that schools, teachers, and students will be left in the competitive dust unless we explicitly define and declare their needs.