Clinton Brings Digital Divide Crusade To Comdex
Fresh from announcing a variety of new public and private financial commitments to helping poor children leap across the "digital divide," President Clinton today will bring that same message to the venerable yet cutting-edge Comdex trade show.
In a speech to be delivered here in Chicago, Clinton will reiterate his previously announced efforts to bring the Internet to children and adults who have little access to a telephone line, much less the Internet.
Clinton also is expected to announce an $86 million public-private investment over three years to create 214 community technology centers, and to expand 136 existing centers. The centers also have received $100 million in the FY 2001 budget request. $44 million is expected to come from the government, with another $42 million from private sources.
Today's Comdex speech wraps up his digital divide tour, which started in East Palo Alto, Calif., and the Navajo Indian reservation in Shiprock, N.M. Clinton met with senior officials of the Navajo Nation, and brought along an entourage of elected and regulatory officials, including FCC Chairman William Kennard, HUD Chairman Andrew Cuomo, Sen. Robert Benentt, R-Utah, and Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, Bill Jefferson, D-La., and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-Ohio.
Clinton today is expected to speak more about the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Neighborhood Network Centers, which he hopes to expand to 1,000 within the next two years. The centers are computer training facilities near HUD developments.
The president also is expected to receive a pledge from 200 college deans to make sure that new teachers are technology-literate.
Clinton's FY 2001 budget request to Congress contains $150 million to encourage teacher training, twice the amount in the FY 2000 budget.
Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com.