Free home computers, Internet access for the poor? Enough!

A recent article in the Virginia Journal of Education (published by the Virginia Education Association) offers one possible solution to bridge the new “digital divide” between rich and poor, white and minority public school children: The government should provide free high-speed Internet access in the homes of low income and minority students.

The article in the March issue of the magazine points out that there is an educational gap between those that have computers in their homes and those that don’t, and it is helping the more advantaged kids to learn faster, while leaving the less advantaged behind.

Not surprisingly, studies show that families with higher incomes have computers and high-speed Internet access at home, while many lower income and minority kids don’t. The studies show that 67% of all white kids have gone online, while only 45% of black kids and 37% of Hispanic kids have. The author surmises the reason that minorities and lower income kids don’t go online is because they don’t start at an early enough age (age 4) at home.

Of course the divide is increasing, but is giving away free Internet access the answer?

What about computer after school programs at the local Y or youth center? What about keeping school computer rooms open after school? A 2002 survey showed that 53 percent of public schools allowed after-hours access. What about using computers in public libraries? Just a few years ago, the federal government called for massive spending to bring public libraries and public schools online and into the “Internet Age” for this very reason. Now we’re being told that’s not enough?

Most of us should know by now that in the world of government, there is no such word as “enough.”

It’s not “enough” that we have spent hundreds of millions (billions?) of dollars wiring every public library and public school. No, it’s not enough, the article claims, because children now need privacy when using the Internet to look up health issues (birth control?) and to do their homework. There’s always some excuse for more government, isn’t there?

Because the “advantaged” children have their own computers and high speed Internet access at home, we have to make sure the “disadvantaged” can keep up.

Although the article proposes taxpayer-funded Internet access, you can’t access the Internet without some type of computer, so that means the government will be handing out those, too. (I remember when the government just used to hand out free cheese. Ahhh, the good old days.)

And we can’t expect kids to have just boring old dial-up service, because it’s too slow, and rich kids shouldn’t be the only ones who can download movies and games quickly. No, it’s necessary to provide expensive $40 per month high-speed Internet, not the $9.95 per month (some are even free) dial-up access that you can use over any phone line.

What happens when the “advantaged” get new printers and scanners and 19” monitors so they don’t have to strain their eyes? Will the government have to make sure that the “disadvantaged” get the same -- with taxpayer dollars? Will that be enough? Will we as a society be called racist and classist, and will we be derided as cold and heartless because we make the “disadvantaged” suffer with free 17” “government” monitors, which cause eye problems for those students?

Should the taxpayers also fund free cable television into low income and minority homes so that students can watch the Discovery Channel and the History Channel? How about free newspaper and magazine subscriptions? How about free in-home tutors to replace bad parents who won’t help their kids with homework, because kids with good parents are at an unfair advantage?

The bottom line is that we have more basic things to worry about than universal Internet access. When basic skills like reading are on the decline, shouldn’t we worry about teaching kids to read first?

The fact is that reading serves as the major foundational skill for all school-based learning.

Studies have shown that 40 percent of fourth graders failed to demonstrate basic reading skills. As many as 15 percent of all U.S. high-school students drop out each year, and 75 percent of those children can't read, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health.

Let’s tackle the basic problems first, before fabricating new ones to justify creating one more government program.