Digital learning dollars touted

State board told of school benefits

A program is in the works to accelerate efforts by Arkansas school districts to expand and improve their computer networks and access to the Internet.

Gov. Mike Beebe has proposed that a $10 million transfer from the state’s General Improvement Fund be used to establish a Broadband Facilities Matching Grant Program that would give districts access to as much as an additional $40 million for attaining high-speed Internet access for their campuses.

The prospect for the technology money comes at a time when the state’s school districts and charter schools are relying more and more on computers and the Internet for teaching and learning and are also preparing to convert to online state tests in 2014-15. Those online tests will replace the paper-and-pencil Arkansas Augmented Benchmark and End-of-Course exams.

Additionally, starting with next year’s class of ninth-graders, Arkansas public school students will be required to take at least one “digitally delivered” course to be eligible to graduate from high school in 2017-18 and beyond.

Last month, Beebe asked legislative leaders to consider a supplemental appropriations bill that would transfer $10 million for technology use to the Arkansas Department of Education Public School Fund. Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, at the time questioned whether school districts would be required to put up a dollar-for-dollar match out of their own funds to get the state money and whether that system would compound inequities between affluent and less-affluent school systems.

Susan Harriman, the Education Department’s director of policy/special projects, said Friday that if the $10 million is appropriated by the Legislature during its current fiscal session, the state money could be leveraged by districts for up to $40 million from the national E-rate program.

The E-rate program subsidizes technology purchases by schools and libraries with money from fees that are charged to telecommunication companies. The program is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Co. under the auspices of the Federal Communications Commission. The program, already long used by Arkansas school districts for their technology purchases, provides a greater benefit to school districts with higher percentages of students from low-income families.

“There is an opportunity for some one-time, unprecedented money for K-12 [schools] in the state,” Harriman told the Arkansas Board of Education about the governor’s initiative on Friday. “We have the potential to match the $10 million with about $40 million of federal money. We are looking at the potential for $50 million in one-time, new money. This is so important and our schools need this money.”

The state has hired consultants to assist with the E-rate applications that are due in the next few weeks. The money would be used to help connect campus buildings, “the bus barns with the classrooms with the administration buildings,” through wide area networks or hubs, Harriman said. The money would go directly to districts to be used to pay the technology providers.

The first priority for funding will go to provide connectivity to districts that do not yet have that, and those districts will be prioritized based on their percentages of students eligible for free- and reduced-price meals, which is based on family income, Harriman said.

The second priority for the one-time E-rate funds through the state match program will be those districts that need to upgrade their connectivity.

The third group would be those districts with existing fiber-optic wide area networks to help them pay their connectivity charges.

Harriman called the Internet and high-speed connections the “new” Mississippi River.

“This is the river of our lifetime because that is where people gather, trade goods and learn,” she said, citing North Carolina as the “Rolls-Royce” of school connectivity and online learning. School-specific networks in that state provide students with access to online studies of tectonic plates in California and to the artifacts of the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C.

Education Board Chairman Brenda Gullett of Fayetteville questioned whether all school district administrators have the expertise to complete the E-rate applications and negotiate contracts with technology providers.

“Does the buck just stop on the desk of the Department of Education or is there any other available help in the state to help shoulder this responsibility?” she asked.

Harriman said school district superintendents and technology coordinators were notified this week of the state initiative and the availability of help from state offices on the E-rate applications. In addition to the E-rate consultants, the State Department of Information Services has been working with the district technology coordinators in recent months, mapping out the equipment that they have and what they need.

Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell said that the state’s 15 education service cooperatives have been assisting their member school districts with technology and training. He highlighted the Great Rivers Education Service Cooperative in Helena-West Helena for its work with east Arkansas school systems on past E-rate applications.

Act 1280 of 2013, the statute that requires high school students to complete a digitally delivered course to graduate, also requires the Education Department to explore ways to provide schools with necessary technology. In response, the agency created the Quality Digital Learning Study Group, which is led by Ed Franklin, president emeritus of the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges.

The governor appointed a second committee, the Fast Access for Students, Teachers and Economic Results committee - FASTER for short - to examine the issue from the business perspective. That group appointed a subgroup, an engineering/infrastructure task force to provide engineering and network expertise on how to design a system to provide optimum bandwidth.

Franklin told the Education Board on Friday that Arkansas has catching up to do in comparison with other states in regard to education technology. The state received a grade of F in the 2012 Digital Learning Report by the Foundation of Educational Excellence. Similarly, the Tech Net Report on state broadband access listed the state as 50th in the nation, he said.

“We’ve got to do something different,” Franklin said.

The Quality Digital Learning Study Group will complete its report and recommendations by May 1, after wrestling at times to get information from school districts that don’t always have a lot of knowledge on the issue and from private providers of technology systems. An existing state law prevents public school districts from using the Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network, a public-private system that connects universities, community colleges and higher-education-related hospitals.

“That’s an issue,” he said.

“We won’t have a perfect plan,” Franklin said. “If we waited for a perfect plan, it would be 50 years from now and - guess what - we will still be last. What we will have is a starting point and an evolving plan. If we don’t start, we will never get where we need to be.”

Much of the committee’s work to date, including maps and various state and nationa lreports, are linked to the Education Department’s website; arkansased.org

Franklin said the goal must be to reduce cost to the school districts and the state while at the same time increasing technology access for students.

Gullett welcomed the report.

“I think it is just wonderful to see that we are moving forward with this kind of partnership that can only benefit everyone,” Gullett said. “Words fail me as to why anyone would not just roll up their sleeves and give 100 percent for digital learning for students.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/15/2014

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