In his 1997 State of the Union speech, President Clinton returned to one of his
favorite themes — education. In order to ensure that “Americans
have the best education in the world,” he asked Congress to “work
together to meet these three goals”:
“Every eight-year-old must be able to read. Every 12-year-old
must be able to log on to the Internet. Every 18-year-old must be
able to go to college. And every adult American must be able to
keep on learning for a lifetime.”
(Actually, that’s four goals, but who’s counting?)
Clinton returned to the Internet theme later in the speech,
saying that “we must bring the power of the Information Age into
all our schools.” In fact, a vital crossbeam in the Bridge to the
21st Century was the requirement that our nation “connect every
classroom and library to the Internet by the year 2000, so that,
for the first time in our history, children in the most isolated
rural towns, the most comfortable suburbs, the poorest inner city
schools will have the same access to the same universe of
knowledge.”
Well, we’ve long since crossed that bridge, and thanks to the
Universal Service Fund — paid for by you in the
form of a “universal connectivity charge” on your monthly phone
bill — upwards of 98 percent of public schools have been wired for the Internet. And
what of the educational nirvana that was to result?
Even as it was just getting started, some questioned the value
of such a venture. While campaigning for his education plan in
February 1997, President Clinton repeated what he said a citizen
told him upon learning of the initiative to wire schools: “I like
your education program, but I think you’re overdoing this Internet
deal. I mean, what good is the Internet if people can’t read and
write?” Answering his own question, Clinton said, “The point is
that a lot of these kids will be more interested in learning to
read and write if they have access to technology.”
The President should have paid a little more attention to that
average Joe’s skepticism. While Vice President Gore’s interest in
the Internet was so well known that it became a running joke,
Clinton has always been a technophobe. On a tight deadline now to
finish his memoirs, the former president shuns computers and writes
everything out in longhand, or else collects his thoughts on audio
tape — the exact same process he used to compose his 1996 book
Between Hope and History. And now we learn that, during
his eight years in the Oval Office, Clinton sent a grand total of
two emails — one as a test of the system, and one
actual message sent to former Sen. John Glenn. Apparently
technophobia runs in the family; in early 1997 Hillary admitted
that she would have to learn how to use email herself before
Chelsea went off to college in the fall so they could keep in touch
more easily.
Of course presidents can’t be expected to have personal
knowledge of every government program they push; given the size of
the federal budget, this literally would be impossible. But is it
too much to ask that our leaders know at least something
about the few programs they specifically emphasize to a national
audience of millions during the State of the Union? When President
Clinton stood before Congress and declared that teaching
12-year-olds to get online was of the same importance as teaching
8-year-olds to read, he revealed his colossal ignorance both of
what the Internet actually is and the primary purpose of the public
schools. Seven years later, thanks to the $1.58 surcharge on your
monthly phone bill, the schools are wired. Unfortunately, not every
8-year-old can read.
