SCN: Digital divide

Tue Feb 26 23:12:07 PST 2002

x-no-archive: yes  

====================  

(Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal)---Only those with "an 
unreal understanding" of U.S. capitalism would expect the poor, 
minorities and rural residents to immediately have the same access 
to the Internet as other Americans, the nation's top 
telecommunications regulator has said. Government efforts to 
bridge the divide, he added, veer toward "socialization."   

The skepticism expressed last year by Michael Powell, the Bush 
appointee who is chairman of the Federal Communications 
Commission, plainly seems to be shared by the rest of the 
administration. Breaking with Clinton administration policy, the 
Bush team has set about quietly dismantling many programs 
devoted to ending the so-called digital divide. The latest casualty: 
the Technology Opportunities Program -- or TOP -- one of Mr. 
Clinton's favorites.   

Bush officials, including chief economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, 
also oppose Democratic proposals for tax incentives for companies 
that bring broadband Internet access to poor and rural areas. And 
the administration may take aim again at the FCC's popular "e-
rate" program, widely credited with helping to wire thousands of 
inner-city schools and libraries.   

Democrats, in turn, are firing back. They blast the White House for 
trying to overhaul or drop the programs amid a recession that 
leaves the least-educated Americans most vulnerable. Critics note 
that half the new jobs for workers without college degrees require 
daily use of computers, often including use of the Internet, and the 
income gap between those who use computers on the job and 
those who don't continues to widen.   

"You don't even hear the Bush people pay lip service to the digital 
divide," says Greg Simon, who was a longtime top adviser to Vice 
President Al Gore and a Clinton administration adviser on 
telecommunications issues. "Why are they so quick to get rid of 
these little programs that help the poor? It's not like the digital 
divide has suddenly gone away."   

Maybe not suddenly, but it is going away, Bush officials maintain. 
Looking at the same data as their critics, administration officials 
see a digital divide closing -- if slowly -- where their foes see a 
growing chasm. Meanwhile, they reject any suggestion the 
administration is ignoring the gap. Officials say they simply are 
trying to streamline government efforts, to be more efficient and up-
to-date, while encouraging the private sector to take more 
responsibility for spreading digital skills.   

"We haven't declared victory on the digital divide, but there's been 
tremendous growth across the board, and we are clearly moving in 
the right direction," says Nancy Victory, who runs the Commerce 
Department's National Telecommunications and Information 
Agency, the government's technology-policy arm. "The changes 
we want to make don't show a lack of commitment -- they show 
that we're trying to move ahead in different and more targeted 
ways."   

Earlier this month, an NTIA report showed the growth in Internet 
usage among poor and minority Americans far exceeded that for 
wealthy, white or Asian Americans. Web use among blacks and 
Hispanics, for instance, grew by 33% and 30%, respectively, 
between August 2000 and September 2001, while the growth rate 
for whites and Asians was 20%. To the administration, this is 
evidence of a narrowing digital divide, undercutting the argument 
for more federal help.   

Some Democrats drew a different conclusion. While growth rates 
for Web use are indeed higher for those on the wrong side of the 
divide, those groups started from so far down that the gap is wider 
than ever. For instance, the report found that in 1997, 10% of 
Americans earning less than $25,000 a year used the Web, 
compared with 45% of those earning more than $75,000 -- a gap 
of 35 percentage points. By 2001, despite the progress in both 
groups, the gap was 50 percentage points.   

"The same people who said during the 1990s that there was no 
digital divide are now saying there was one, but it's been cured," 
says Larry Irving, who ran the NTIA during the Clinton 
administration. "But how can we declare victory when 75% of our 
poorest people and 60% of our blacks and Hispanics have no 
Internet access of any kind?"   

For the administration, Ms. Victory says the growth rates offer a 
better picture of the status of the digital divide. "They're the best 
indicator of future trends and where things are heading," she says. 
 The two sides are just as far apart on policies, a difference that 
dates to the Bush-Gore presidential contest. Shortly after taking 
office, Bush officials said they would fulfill a campaign promise 
effectively eliminating the FCC's popular e-rate program, which Mr. 
Gore had promoted and which reimbursed schools and libraries for 
as much as 90% of the cost of Internet access. Instead, the 
administration proposed block grants for the states from the 
Education Department, combining funds that otherwise would have 
gone for the e-rate program with those for other education-
technology programs.   

The proposal alarmed many educators, who feared that some 
state governments would use the money for other purposes. 
Opponents, including several Republicans such as Maine Sen. 
Olympia Snowe, also worried about putting the program under the 
control of a cabinet department, where it would be subject to 
normal budget politics, instead of the independent FCC. The 
administration dropped the proposal in 2001, but now White House 
officials privately have told some Republican lawmakers they may 
revive it this year.   

The administration's most controversial move is its proposal to 
eliminate the small TOP program of grants to state and local-
government agencies and nonprofit groups. Last year, the Bush 
administration had proposed slashing its funding, once as much as 
$45 million, to $15 million.   

The TOP program was designed to provide matching grant money 
for technology projects at schools, libraries, health agencies, 
police departments and nonprofits. The Maya Angelou Public 
Charter School, in the capital's poor inner city, used its money to 
buy laptops so students can learn e-mail and other computer skills, 
and in turn teach senior citizens in the area. Another project linked 
doctors at the University of Kansas Medical Center with nurses in 
nearby schools.   

"TOP was at bottom a laboratory for good ideas about how to use 
computers and the Internet to benefit communities," Ms. Victory 
says. "But," she adds, "now it's time to build on some of those 
lessons."   

Ms. Victory cites other proposals in the Bush budget for fiscal 2003 
-- among them, technology grants of as much as $1 billion for the 
Education Department, $1 billion for the Justice Department and 
$100 million for rural telecommunications through the Agriculture 
Department. She concedes most programs that have received 
TOP funds could be bypassed by the new block grants, since local 
and state officials would be largely free to use the money as they 
like.   

For administration critics, the acknowledgment of TOP's success 
makes its proposed demise even more baffling. "If it's not broken 
and the need is still there," says Greg Rohde, a former Clinton 
telecom official, "why get rid of it?"   

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  From the Listowner  * * * * * * * * * * * *
.	To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to:
majordomo at scn.org		In the body of the message, type:
unsubscribe scn
==== Messages posted on this list are also available on the web at: ====
* * * * * * *     http://www.scn.org/volunteers/scn-l/     * * * * * * *