Summary: Education technology represents a substantial investment on the part of school districts intent on following the lead of private industry in making computers an integral part of everyday activities. One study has estimated that placing one networked computer laboratory in each school nationwide would cost $11 billion up front and $4 billion in annual expenses. GAO found that the five school districts it reviewed--from a rural district in North Carolina's furniture manufacturing region to the largest urban school districts in New Hampshire and Washington--used a broad information approach to educate the community and formed local partnerships with business. However, funding from private sources for each district, including business, constituted about three percent or less of what each district had spent on its technology program. Instead, these districts relied on special local bonds and levies, state assistance, and federal grants to purchase and replace equipment. Lack of staff to seek and apply for funding and difficulty in funding technology support staff were major concerns of officials in all five districts GAO studied. None of the technology programs GAO reviewed had obtained a clearly defined and relatively stable funding source, such as a line item in the operating budget or a part of the state's education funding formula. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: School Technology: Five School Districts' Experiences in Financing Technology Programs, by Carlotta C. Joyner, Director of Education and Employment Issues, before the Education Task Force, Senate Committee on the Budget. GAO/T-HEHS-98-83, Jan. 29 (13 pages).
