Maintenance and updating will be issues. In the meantime, all that a district has to do to receive its money from the state technology program is offer a one-page proposal laying out its plans. Districts do not have to spend their allotments each year, but can earmark them for bigger projects later in the five-year program. That is a novel approach for Iowa, says Ann Molis, the state education department's legislative liaison. We don't usually operate that way.
Technology continues to draw the interest of state leaders.
A recent report from the Governor's Commission on Educational Excellence for the 21st Century includes numerous proposals for increasing school technology. Gov. Terry E. Branstad was scheduled last month to hold 10 public hearings on the recommendations, and is expected to propose legislation based on them in his legislative package, Jessen says. Public school teachers' reports on the availability of computers to students in mathematics classes. Attracting much attention is the commission's recommendation that, with the support of the private sector, every Iowa student in the 4th grade and above be given access to a laptop computer. It currently links all the state's community colleges and at least one site in each of Iowa's 99 counties, as well as a limited number of schools.