Ron Kind: “as this Nation forges ahead into the 21st century, our children's education must keep pace with the rigors and demands…”

“as this Nation forges ahead into the 21st century, our children's education must keep pace with the rigors and demands of the information age and the new economy. In recent years, our Nation's schools have been doing a good job of acquiring technology like computers, information technology networks, and the Internet access. Now as schools continue their efforts in acquiring and updating technology this allows time to focus on the result of these efforts, student education and achievement. To help schools teach with technology, I, along with the gentleman from California (Mr. Dooley) and 17 other members of the new Democratic coalition, have introduced H.R. 4081, the Education Technology Enhances Classrooms Act, or EdTEC for short. EdTEC updates and reauthorizes the very successful and popular Technology Literacy Challenge Fund contained in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. EdTEC maintains the core elements of the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund but focuses new attention on integrating technology and classroom curriculum and also addresses a growing and troublesome trend: the digital divide. EdTEC provides valuable framework for States and school districts to create and update their plans for education technology purchases, self-training and development, and, now, student learning. Teachers will be given more tools and guidance to actually use technology to teach core academic subjects.”