Bush FY 02 Budget and Community Technology Centers

The FY 02 budget proposes to shift the federal Community Technology Centers (CTC) program, housed under the US Department of Education's Office of Adult and Vocational Education, to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Community Development Block Grant program. On June 20, 2000, then-candidate George W. Bush issued a campaign fact sheet titled, "Education Technology: From The Classroom To Our Communities" [Adobe PDF format] in which he proposed to "invest $400 million to create and maintain more than 2,000 community technology centers every year. These centers are providing such services as free Internet access, computer literacy training, and professional skills development." On April 9, 2001, now-President George W. Bush released his first budget request, which provides a mixed picture for CTCs. There is a funding increase for CTCs -- although nowhere near the campaign pledge -- but there is a massive cut in another important technology grant program. Moreover, there may be a change in funding priorities for CTCs away from rural areas. The FY 02 budget proposes to shift the federal Community Technology Centers (CTC) program, housed under the US Department of Education's Office of Adult and Vocational Education, to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Community Development Block Grant program. The budget calls for $80 million to integrate the CTC program with an expanded version of the HUD Neighborhood Networks program. Congress appropriated $65 million for CTCs this year (FY 01), after Bill Clinton requested $100 million. It took considerable lobbying by the Clinton administration and nonprofits to get Congress to appropriate $65 million. In keeping with the existing Education Department's CTC program model, the proposed grants would be open to state and local educational agencies, higher education institutions, business, public and private nonprofits, or consortia with the capacity to provide computer access and support services. What is not clear, however, is how widespread the availability of the new grants programs will be to high poverty areas across the country, particularly in rural areas. In the budget notes, the new entity would provide competitive grants to "high poverty URBAN communities and provide technical assistance to these centers." (emphasis added) Moreover, the current HUD Neighborhood Networks program, started in 1995, creates CTCs for residents of public and assisted housing, which are mostly concentrated in urban areas. HUD also supports other CTC-type programs under its HOPE VI grants for revitalizing distressed housing, the Office of Native American Programs, and Public and Indian Housing. Yet no explicit mention of rural areas is made. Another key technology grant program would be slashed. The President's FY 02 budget calls for a dramatic decrease in funding for the Department of Commerce's Technology Opportunities Program (TOP). In FY 01, TOP received $45 million for grants to help develop the national telecommunications and information technology infrastructure to help deliver social services -- including education, health, employment, and public safety -- to underserved rural and urban areas across the country, and provide program model research and evaluation to help replicate those services. Under the FY02 budget, $16 million dollars is available for TOP, of which $13 million is available for new grants.
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