Home AdvocacyPolicyWashington Notes1999 Sep

Contents

• New Millennium Classrooms Act on Fast Track
• House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Distance Learning
• Congress Moves Toward Internet Filtering

New Millennium Classrooms Act on Fast Track

The "New Millennium Classrooms Act" (H.R. 2308/S. 542), introduced in both the House and the Senate, attempts to make donating computers (3 years old or newer) to schools more attractive to businesses. It includes tax credits from 30% to 50% on donations contingent upon the location of the recipients.

The bill has drawn criticism from educators who think that a tax credit for three-year-old hardware will create more problems than it solves. Supporting the legislation are Gateway 2000, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

On July 14, ISTE and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) sent a joint letter to the members of the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees to protest the Act. While supporting the goal of the legislation, the authors warned that the maintenance, support, and software that schools and libraries would need to invest in to upgrade and integrate such hardware could be prohibitively expensive. ISTE argued that the generous tax incentives might dissuade companies from donating newer technology and discourage local communities from investing in appropriate technology for their schools and libraries. Read the letter online at www.iste.org (click the Update icon.)

Other groups weighing in against the bill include the National Education Association, National School Boards Association, and some other computer companies.

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Distance Learning

At a June 24 hearing of the House Commerce Committee's subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, U.S. Registrar of Copyrights Marybeth Peters presented findings and recommendations from a recently released report on the possible revision of copyright law to accommodate distance education users. The full report is available at http://lcweb.loc.gov.

At the hearing, Peters stressed that immediate legislation is necessary to maintain the balance that the 1976 Copyright Act struck between the rights of copyright owners and the needs of students and educators. Congress ordered the study because parts of the 1976 law don't protect distance learners who now use digital technology instead of analog technology, which was common when the original law was drafted. Peters specifically petitioned the Committee to clarify the meaning of a "transmission" in legislative history so that it includes transmission by both analog and digital means. She also argued that the categories of works that are copyright exempt for distance education should be expanded to include audio-visual and multimedia works, as long as they are viewed in "reasonable and limited portions."

Law Library Director of UNC-Chapel Hill Laura Gasaway noted in her testimony that a "limited portion" rule makes little sense because the law would permit a student in a physical classroom to watch an entire educational video, whereas a distance ed student could watch only a portion of that content. Gasaway asked the Committee members if they were teaching a class on the human digestive system, which portion they would take away for distance students. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) suggested that the legislation might be written to allow the use of complete works in certain cases.

Also testifying were representatives from the Association of American Publishers and the Motion Picture Association of America who argued against the need to make changes in the law.

Congress Moves Toward Internet Filtering

Both the House and the Senate have taken significant steps toward passing a law that would require schools and libraries that participate in the E-rate program to install filtering or blocking software on computers with Internet access.

Though education advocates have long opposed this legislation, on June 17, the House passed the "Children's Internet Protection Act" as an amendment to the Juvenile Justice Bill. Sponsored by Rep. Bob Franks (R-NJ), the bill would require any school or library receiving E-rate funds to use filtering software to censor Internet content that "contains detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of explicit sexual or violent material." The legislation creates serious first amendment questions and would necessitate establishing federal standards for obscenity and violence. Schools and libraries that do not comply within 30 days would have their E-rate funding revoked, retroactive to the beginning of the program.

Sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the Senate version (S. 97) requires installation and use of filtering and blocking software on all computers to be eligible for E-rate discounts. Blocking and filtering software was made eligible for E-rate discount.

But many education and library advocates argue that a national policy on filtering removes the careful decision making that is taking place nationwide at the local level by community leaders. In fact, many schools and libraries already maintain Acceptable Use Policies for responsible Internet use.

At the hearing, Sen. John Kerrey (D-MA) raised concerns that the McCain bill is an unfunded mandate requiring schools and libraries to purchase filtering software and equipment.

Libraries are particularly hard hit by the filtering mandate. They will be required to ensure that filters are in use whenever minors are using them, which means that libraries will either need to supervise all terminals accessible by minors or place blocking and filtering devices on all terminals. The American Library Association warned that, "S. 97 not only writes into federal law a single and highly flawed technological approach to protecting children online, it forces libraries to broadly employ that technology in a manner that threatens the rights of all library users."

Prepared by Leslie Harris, Adeena Colbert, and Phil Ugelow
On behalf of the International Society for Technology in Education