Parents have the opportunity to learn more the Internet and their student's use of the Internet in their school. Problems that do emerge are promptly addressed by the committee and are used as learning experiences to improve their practices. It is my belief that this approach to the use of the Internet holds the greatest promise of helping students gain the skills, motivation, and self control to use the Internet safely and responsibly. However, it is my belief that any legislation in this area still raises concerns of Congressional interference with the decision-making of local school authorities. Standards, Instruction, Supervision, Discipline, and Filtering.
Schools can combine the use of filtering with a comprehensive plan.
The greatest problem with this approach is that while the intention may be to focus on standards, instruction, supervision, and discipline what happens at the classroom level is that individual teachers, knowing of the presence of the filtering system become falsely secure and complacent. Parental Involvement A statement was made to me by a Senate Commerce Committee staff person about the Senate version of this legislation that disturbed me greatly. Ongoing parental involvement in all aspects of their children's education, especially regarding the new uses of technology in schools, is critically important. But parental involvement must be at the local level, with their children's teachers, their school site council, their local governing body, and their state legislature. Congress should not be reinforcing parental disengagement at the local level by encouraging parents to come running to Congress to address what is a local issue.