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Closing the Gap on the Digital Divide
By Eugene Chan
Medill News Service
WASHINGTON - Depending on who you talk to, the digital divide -- the gap
between rich and poor, white and minority, with regard to access to
computers and the Internet -- either remains significant or is quickly
closing.
"Things are getting better," Adam Theirer said. He is Director of
Telecommunication Studies for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank
in Washington.
"New technology isn't instantly available to all members of society.
Relative to other technologies historically, however, the fastest growth of
access is occurring among low-income and minority groups."
Angela Blackwell is of the opposite point of view. She is president of
PolicyLink.org, a
liberal group based in New York that advocates programs to help low-income
Americans.
"There is still a long way to go," Blackwell said. "The gap is still wide
for people of color. As a nation we have not yet scratched the surface of
the access question."
Stakes of the Debate
"Even as new technologies create growth and new opportunity, they can
heighten economic inequalities, and sharpen social divisions. That is what
happened in the Industrial Revolution," said former President Clinton in a
1998 commencement speech at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Closing the gap in Internet access that falls along the demographic lines of
race, income and education was a priority of the Clinton administration --
reflected in how it funded so-called bridging programs that helped people
gain access to the Internet.
For example, the Technology Opportunities Program provides matching grants
to programs that teach people how to use digital technology. From 1999 to
2001, the Clinton administration increased funding to the program each year.
From 2000 to 2001, Internet and computer access increased in all groups, but
the divide remained. Last year, for instance, 60 percent of
African-Americans and 68 percent of Hispanics did not have access to
computers or the Internet, according to a National Telecommunications and
Information Administration survey.
But the Bush administration has decided it is time to cut some federal
funding for bridging programs like the Technology Opportunities Program and
Community Technology Centers, which provide people in low-income areas with
access to and training in computers and the Internet.
In President's Bush's proposed budget, funding for Community Technology
Centers would be eliminated, while funding to the Technology Opportunities
Program would be reduced from just over $15 million in the current fiscal
year to $224,000 next year.
Pluggedin.org, in Palo
Alto, Calif., is an example of a Community
Technology Center -- providing a variety of programs, which include
information services and computer training to educational programs for
teenagers. The program received its grant this year. The director of the
program, Asher Miller, said cutting Community Technology Center grants could
affect prospective programs like his that are currently trying to get
federal funding.
"In the future, programs not receiving support is a blow to us and other
centers," Miller said. "The success of our community network project would
have been definitely impacted without federal resources. We get support
through other sources, but for centers in other areas of the country it
would be a challenge to get funding from corporations or foundations."
Digital Divide or Not?
In February, the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration released a report called "A Nation Online." Based on its
study between August 2000 and September 2001, the report states that more
than half of all Americans are using computers.
But Kenneth Hacker, an associate professor of communication studies at New
Mexico State University, said the report has a significant flaw.
"It shows that more Americans than ever before (54 percent) are using the
Internet and that the rise in usage overall cuts across demographically," he
said. "However, what the report does not emphasize is that there continues
to be an increasing gap between ethnic groups."
For the Bush administration, the proposed funding cutback is a matter of
determining what the priorities of the country are.
"The country has new needs like the fight against terrorism, which the
administration felt, had to be in its budget," an Office of Management and
Budget official said. "It's a guns or butter issue and the priority goes
into balancing the budget and protecting the homeland."
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