Experts fear gap between computer haves, have-nots
Griff Palmer
Home computer use continues to be the province of wealthy white
people, as computers become more central to the work place, a
U.S. Census Bureau study released today shows.
Even at school, the study shows, children from upper-income
families have more access to computers and the Internet than do
children from poorer families.
Experts say the gap between information age haves and have-nots
is a threat to the future of the American economy, as prosperity
increasingly comes to depend on having computer skills.
Today's release shows the continuation of a trend that the
Census Bureau has observed since 1984: While computer use has risen
at work, school and home, home access to computers is a privilege
enjoyed mostly by upper-income families, and more by white families
than by minorities.
The study shows similar racial and income disparities in access
to the Internet, widely recognized as playing an ever-more crucial
role in the U.S. economy and civic life.
The latest report is based on surveys conducted in October 1997.
"I think that the future of society is going to be increasingly
dependent on having computer skills," said Mitchell Moss, a New
York University professor who has studied the effects of poverty on
Internet access. "This is a case, really, for the importance of
having access in community centers, public recreation facilities,
places like that. Libraries are very important."
Recently released academic studies also document an economic and
racial technology gap. Some of the studies also point out programs
that are working to bridge the gap. From public libraries to public
schools to universities, Oklahoma institutions, sometimes with the
help of those that have made fortunes from computers, are creating
programs to help keep minorities and the poor from being left out
of the rapidly emerging digital economy.
Children were strikingly affected by the gap in computer access,
the Census Bureau report notes. Only 20 percent of children in
families with annual incomes below $25,000 lived in households that
had a computer. By contrast, 88 percent of children in families
with incomes greater than $75,000 had a computer at home.
The report says 27 percent of children in upper-income families
had home Internet access, while only 2 percent of children in
families with lower incomes used the Internet at home.
Children from low-income families had less access to computers
at school, as well, the report shows, though the inequities were
not as stark: 20 percent of children from upper-income families
used the Internet from school, as opposed to 12 percent of children
from low-income families.
In a draft paper presented to the U.S. Commerce Department in
May, professors Donna Hoffman and Thomas P. Novak of Vanderbilt
University said the federally brokered "e-rate" program may help
close the gap at school.
The e-rate program provides discounted local and long-distance
telephone services, Internet access service and computer network
equipment for schools, based on the number of poor students at the
schools.
Oklahoma school districts last year qualified for some $37
million in e-rate discounts, said Dr. Phil Applegate, the state
Education Department's executive director of instructional
technology and telecommunications.
However, because the e-rate program doesn't cover computers and
software, it isn't much help to the state's poorer school
districts, Applegate said. The districts still have to buy
computers and software before they can enjoy the increased Internet
access afforded by the e-rate discounts.
"That's a real problem in Oklahoma," Applegate said. "There's
such a disparity between the wealthy districts and the poor
districts."
Hoffman and Novak called the donation of $200 million by the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for improved computers and
Internet access in public libraries "a step in the right
direction." The Gates Foundation has announced it will give $2.5
million to 56 Oklahoma libraries.
As did New York University's Moss, the Vanderbilt professors
cited community computer networks and public-access terminals as
promising methods for closing the "digital divide."
In northeastern Oklahoma, people who don't otherwise have access
to computers and the Internet are being given free access and
training through the Center for the Study of Literacy/Oklahoma
Literacy Clearinghouse, funded by Northeastern State University in
Tahlequah.
The program, now in its 11th year, started out focusing strictly
on teaching reading and mathematics.
"We didn't originally intend on addressing the computer literacy
issue," said the program's director, Dr. Frank McKane. "But it's
kind of a natural progression."
In Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma County Department of Training and
General Assistance, a consortium of 22 social service agencies,
helps poor, unemployed and under-employed people build new job
skills. A computer training lab is a key part of the program,
director Roosevelt Turner said.
"We're getting more and more people coming in here and
recognizing that computers are the new day," Turner said.
While the county training program helps people build basic and
intermediate computer skills, "We cannot do it all ourselves,"
Turner said. He said area vocational-technical training centers
also provide training and, in some cases, financial aid to people
who want to build their computer skills.