A Crisis: Funding for Educational Technology in the United States

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A Crisis: Funding for Educational Technology in the United States

The United States is a country that thrives through technological advancement. The wealth and success of this nation is dependent on providing every child, regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender, with the opportunity to obtain technological skills that are essential for a successful future. Unfortunately, educational funding for technology has failed to take precedent. In realizing that, the question then becomes, how is a country expected to thrive from the use and advancement of technology, when failing to properly train future leaders? Funding must be provided for schools to purchase technological equipment, such as computers, in order to ensure that each child has an equal chance to thrive in a country that is defined by its advancement in technology.

Funding for technology is one of the first plans eliminated in public schools. In 2002, Bush's plan for solving the school funding crisis was to decrease funding for technology from eight hundred seventytwo million dollars to eight hundred seventeen million dollars, a fifty-fivemillion dollar difference. The cut was accomplished through the consolidation of nine "education technology programs" into one("Bush Budget" 1). The new plan created "a single education technology grant program under theElementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that would be performancebased and would attempt to reduce the number of grant applications requiredby schools"("Bush budget"1). The Elementary and Secondary EducationAct of 1965, established during Lyndon Johnson's presidency, directed "billionsof federal dollars in a dazzling array of special programs focused especiallyon the children of poverty"("Reaut...

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...his online article is an overview of the proposed solution to the school-funding crisis for technology. The Technology Literacy Challenge Fund proposes that they will make it their priority to ensure that every child is "technologically literate" by the 21st century. It goes on to give examples of schools benefiting from TLCF.

7. Zucker, Andrew. "Computers in Education: National Policy in the USA." European

Journal of Education 17.4 (1982): np.

Andrew Zucker examines computer use in the United States in both elementary and secondary education. It addresses issues such as teacher training, technology availability at home and in schools, and current technology projects that were ongoing at this time. The article ends by discussing computer usage in schools in a larger context, which provides a different perspective on educational technology.

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