II

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2762

To establish SHARE Net grants to support the development of a comprehensive, accessible, high-technology infrastructure of educational and cultural

resources for non-profit institutions, individuals, and others for educational purposes through a systematic effort to coordinate, link, and

enhance, through technology, existing specialized resources and expertise

in public and private cultural and educational institutions.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JUNE 21, 2000

Mr. DODD introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to

the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To establish SHARE Net grants to support the development

of a comprehensive, accessible, high-technology infrastructure of educational and cultural resources for nonprofit institutions, individuals, and others for educational

purposes through a systematic effort to coordinate, link,

and enhance, through technology, existing specialized resources and expertise in public and private cultural and

educational institutions.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Saving Humanities,

3 Arts, and Resources for Education Networking Act of

4 2000’’ (SHARE Net Act).

5 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find7 ings:

8 (1) The Morrill Acts enacted in 1862 and 1890

9 brought about a significant change in the system of

10 education in the United States by providing for the

11 sale of public lands in the West and the dedication

12 of the proceeds of those sales to funding the estab13 lishment of practical, accessible land grant colleges

14 and universities in States across the Nation.

15 (2) The land grant colleges and universities

16 have a focus on research, teaching, and outreach,

17 and continue to this day to be leaders in higher edu18 cation by providing affordable access to high-quality

19 postsecondary education.

20 (3) The land grant colleges and universities also

21 have emerged as one of the greatest sources of ad22 vanced research that leverages the United States

23 economy and powers the United States global com24 petitiveness.

25 (4) The land grant colleges and universities, in

26 conjunction with the Cooperative State Research,
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1 Education, and Extension Service, serve to dissemi2 nate information learned from research and link re3 search activities to larger societal needs.

4 (5) The potential of advanced Internet, digital

5 spectrum, and other telecommunications technologies

6 to increase the quality and reach of educational re7 sources has barely been tapped.

8 (6) Numerous local and regional educational

9 and community organizations are repositories of

10 knowledge, information, and educational resources

11 and programs that, in terms of accessibility to the

12 potential beneficiaries, are fragmented and uncoordi13 nated.

14 (7) The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and

15 the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established a

16 framework for the transition from analog to digital

17 television and for the auction of publicly-owned ana18 log spectrum.

19 (8) The auction of the analog spectrum is ex20 pected to yield over $6,000,000,000 in revenues for

21 the Treasury of the United States.

22 (9) The analog spectrum, as a valuable, pub23 licly-owned asset, is today’s equivalent of the public

24 lands of the western frontier of a century ago.
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1 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con2 gress that, following the principle of the Morrill Acts that

3 public assets be used for broadening public education, the

4 resources available through the auction of the analog spec5 trum should be tapped to fund the development of a new

6 educational and cultural infrastructure that utilizes to7 day’s technologies to expand the reach and impact of exist8 ing high-quality community educational resources.

9 SEC. 3. GRANT PROGRAM.

10 (a) AUTHORITY.—

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Education

12 may carry out a grant program to support efforts to

13 achieve the goal set forth in subsection (b).

14 (2) DESIGNATION.—A grant awarded under

15 this section shall be known as a ‘‘SHARE Net

16 Grant’’.

17 (b) GOAL.—The goal referred to in subsection (a)(1)

18 is to develop a comprehensive, accessible, high-tech infra19 structure of educational and cultural resources for non20 profit institutions, individuals, and others for educational

21 purposes through a systematic effort to coordinate, link,

22 and enhance existing specialized resources and expertise

23 in public and private cultural and educational institutions.

24 (c) ELIGIBLE RECIPIENTS.—Under the grant pro25 gram the Secretary may award a grant to any consortium
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1 (hereafter in this section referred to as a ‘‘partnership’’)

2 consisting of not less than 3 organizations from not less

3 than 3 of the following categories of organizations:

4 (1) Institutions of a higher education.

5 (2) Libraries.

6 (3) Public radio and television stations.

7 (4) Museums.

8 (5) Arts and cultural institutions.

9 (6) State educational agencies.

10 (7) Local educational agencies.

11 (8) Public interest, not-for-profit organizations.

12 (d) USE OF GRANT FUNDS.—

13 (1) MANDATORY.—A partnership awarded a

14 grant under this section shall use the grant funds

15 for the following purposes:

16 (A) EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE GOAL.—To sup17 port the efforts of the partnership to achieve

18 the goal described in subsection (b).

19 (B) SURVEY OF AVAILABLE RESOURCES.—

20 To survey and catalogue the educational re21 sources of participants in the partnership and

22 other institutions in the community to deter23 mine the breadth, quality, and accessibility of

24 the resources.
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1 (C) TECHNOLOGICAL LINKAGE.—To link

2 the resources of the participants and others to

3 each other and to the larger community

4 through technology.

5 (D) STRENGTHENING OF RESOURCES.—To

6 improve the quality of and develop new edu7 cational programming to address deficiencies in

8 the available resources.

9 (E) INCREASED ACCESS TO RESOURCES.—

10 To broaden access to the available resources.

11 (2) PERMISSIVE.—A partnership awarded a

12 grant under this section may use the grant funds to

13 provide for cooperative programs with educational

14 institutions to offer—

15 (A) high-quality professional development

16 and training in elementary and secondary edu17 cation; or

18 (B) courses leading to a postsecondary de19 gree.

20 (e) APPLICATION FOR GRANT.—Each partnership de21 siring a grant under this section shall submit an applica22 tion to the Secretary of Education in such form and con23 taining such information as the Secretary may require.

24 Each such application shall include the following:
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1 (1) SURVEY OF AVAILABLE RESOURCES.—A de2 scription of how the partnership will survey the edu3 cational resources of the participants in the partner4 ship and others in relation to the goal described in

5 subsection (b).

6 (2) TECHNOLOGICAL LINKAGE.—A description

7 of how the partnership will link the resources of the

8 participants and others to each other and to the

9 larger community through technology.

10 (3) ENHANCEMENT OF RESOURCES.—A de11 scription of how the efforts of the partnership will

12 enhance the quality and interactivity of the re13 sources.

14 (4) ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM15 MING.—A description of how the partnership will de16 velop any additional educational programming deter17 mined to be necessary.

18 (5) OUTREACH.—A description of how the part19 nership will reach out to the larger community,

20 other cultural institutions, elementary schools, sec21 ondary schools, postsecondary educational institu22 tions, and the public to recruit their participation

23 and active involvement in the system developed in

24 order to coordinate, link, and enhance, through tech25 nology, existing specialized resources and expertise
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1 in public and private cultural and educational insti2 tutions.

3 (f) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—Each partnership

4 receiving a grant under this section shall provide matching

5 funds, in an amount equal to 50 percent of the amount

6 received under the grant, to support the costs of activities

7 assisted under the grant.

8 (g) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under this sec9 tion the Secretary of Education shall give priority to a

10 partnership—

11 (1) that serves a low-income community; or

12 (2) with a membership that is broadly rep13 resentative of the region or State to be served under

14 the grant.

15 (h) GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY.—To the extent prac16 ticable, the Secretary of Education shall ensure that

17 grants under this section are awarded to partnerships

18 serving different geographic areas of the United States.

19 (i) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

20 are authorized to be appropriated to the Department of

21 Education to carry out this section $1,200,000,000 for fis22 cal year 2001 and such sums as may be necessary for each

23 of the 4 succeeding fiscal years.

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