Jeff Bingaman: “as we prepare to complete this first session of the 105th Congress, I want to take a moment to look back at one of the…”

“as we prepare to complete this first session of the 105th Congress, I want to take a moment to look back at one of the great bipartisan accomplishments that we have made this year, and also to look forward to some important work that still lies ahead. I am referring specifically to the work we have been able to do in putting advanced technology to work to improve education in the country. Technology and better use of technology is critical in my home State of New Mexico. It is a big State. We have only a few concentrations of population and economic activity, and technology offers us a way to bring communities closer together and offers us a way to eliminate the gaps that separate the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' in our State and throughout the country. In more than half of American households with incomes of over $50,000, the children have access to a computer at home. But in my State the average family earns about $26,000, and in that income range the estimate is that one in four children in those homes will have access to a computer. We need to do better in the public sector, Mr. President, in providing technology in our schools so that we can use technology to narrow the gap between the haves and have-nots, rather than to allow that gap to increase.”