Obama to push for more Internet access in schools

WASHINGTON — President Obama will host school superintendents from across the nation next week, seeking to follow through on a pledge to have nearly all of the nation's students connected to high-speed Internet in four years.

Some 125 superintendents attending Wednesday's summit will take their own pledge to have their districts connected, and to help others achieve the goal as well, administration officials said.

Cecilia Muñoz, director of Obama's Domestic Policy Council, said high-speed Internet is essential to improving college attainability, and helping students prepare to compete in a global economy against countries that already have wired classrooms.

"This is an important set of tools to help us get there," Muñoz said.

According to the "Future Ready District Pledge" that superintendents will take Wednesday, the federal government and private businesses will provide up to $4 billion to improve the Internet infrastructure for schools nationwide.

Schools and districts, meanwhile, "must develop the human capacity, digital materials, and device access to use the new bandwidth wisely and effectively," says the pledge.

In unveiling the "ConnectED Initiative on June 6, 2013, Obama said he wanted to "connect 99% of America's students" to high-speed WiFi and broadband within five years, which would be 2018.

Right now, some 35% of schools have the necessary broadband to teach new technology, officials said.

In his 2013 announcement at a middle school in Mooresville, N.C., Obama said his goal is "to take a new step to make sure that virtually every child in America's classrooms has access to the fastest Internet and the most cutting-edge learning tools."

The plan has been launched with some $4 billion in public and private money, according to an administration statement. Half comes from the Federal Communications Commission, which is emphasizing WiFi equipment for schools that that now have little or no connectivity.

Private companies have pledged up to another $2 billion, including provisions of technology and equipment: Adobe, Apple, AT&T, AutoDesk, Esri, Microsoft, O'Reilly Media, Prezi, Sprint, and Verizon.

The ConnectED program also puts an emphasis on Native American schools, as well schools in rural areas.

Mark Edwards, superintendent of the Mooresville Graded School District that Obama visited last year, said all of his schools and classrooms have broadband Internet access. Edwards said he is taking the administration's "Future Ready Pledge" in order to help other districts follow suit.

During his visit to Mooresville, Obama pointed out that every student in the district, starting in the third grade, received a laptop and high-speed, wireless Internet in the classroom. "Your high school Spanish class might Skype with students in Barcelona or Buenos Aires," the president said.

The demands of the global economy make it essential that all students have access to the Internet, Edwards said. He described the idea of wiring 99% of the nation's schools by 2017 as "an aspirational goal. But I think it's important to put it out there and say, 'yes, we're going for it.'"

Muñoz noted that, since Mooresville expanded its classroom Internet, "their student achievement has gone way up."

Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of the Miami-Dade Public Schools in Florida, said all of his schools now have wireless Internet. He said future funding for nationwide Internet projects could depend on the priorities of the incoming Republican Congress, and "it remains to be seen what those will be."

Muñoz said lawmakers should support expanded school Internet because other nations like South Korea already have all-Internet schools, a big advantage in a global economy.

"Our kids are competing against the rest of the world," Muñoz said.