CLINTON PROPOSES $2 BILLION PLAN TO FORGE CLASSROOM-COMPUTER LINK.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. At a high-tech junior high school, President Clinton proposed a $2 billion program Thursday to put computers in all of America's classrooms and link them through the information superhighway (1) A generic name for the Internet. (2) A proposed high-speed communications system that was touted by the Clinton/Gore administration to enhance education in America in the 21st century. Its purpose was to help all citizens regardless of their income level. . "Technology clearly is uniting us and moving us forward," the president said. "If you look beyond the schooling years, there are a lot of people that are afraid that technology is doing the reverse." Clinton announced his proposal on a visit to Christopher Columbus Junior High School, which in the late 1980s suffered from poor test scores, poor attendance and high dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human rates. Since then, there has been a dramatic turnaround Turnaround A situation where a company that has had poor performance for an extended period of time experiences a positive reversal. Notes: A speculator may profit from a turnaround if he or she accurately anticipates the improvement of a poorly performing company. attributed in part to a new emphasis on high technology. In a trial program, Bell Atlantic installed computers in the classrooms and homes of all seventh-grade students and teachers, allowing them to communicate with each other on academic work. The seventh-grade students with the most exposure to technology had the highest overall test scores for the district. The fate of Clinton's proposal is uncertain. Money for the five-year program was included in the sketchy budget he unveiled early this month. But that plan isn't likely to go anywhere because of the budget battle between Congress and the White House. In a recent study, the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. estimated it would cost nearly $500 million just for the necessary infrastructure upgrades to make its schools computer ready - $145 million for schools in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. alone. And although it is unclear what L.A. Unified's potential share of the $2 billion program would be, it is certain to fall short of the full cost. In the next school year, L.A. Unified is expecting an estimated $11 million increase in state funding specifically for computer technology. That coupled with individual school grants, donations and other funding could add up to a noticeable change in Los Angeles' classrooms. Clinton's proposal was dubbed dub 1 tr.v. dubbed, dub·bing, dubs 1. To tap lightly on the shoulder by way of conferring knighthood. 2. To honor with a new title or description. 3. the Technology Literacy Challenge. Money for the program would be distributed to states based on the number of students each has. |
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