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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 1998

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association (NEA), today said AT&T and MCI -- and their allies in Congress -- have chosen to "hang up on America's children" by undermining the program to provide discounted Internet service to the nation's schools and libraries.

Both telecommunications companies have placed the "E-Rate" (education rate) program in jeopardy by announcing plans to increase residential phone rates, rather than pay for the program, as they were intended to do.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has already received more than 30,000 applications -- totaling more than $2 billion -- from school systems and libraries seeking discounted Internet access, phone service, and internal wiring under the E-Rate program.

"These corporations have rejected the opportunity to invest a minuscule portion of their vast resources in the future of America and its citizens," Chase said. "Let the record show that when our students placed the call to AT&T and MCI for help in succeeding in the 21st century, the phone companies chose to hang up on America's children."

Chase also objected to the actions of four members of Congress -- Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC), and Reps. Tom Bliley (R-VA) and John D. Dingell (D-MI) -- who wrote to FCC Chairman William Kennard on June 4, saying the FCC "should immediately suspend further collection of funding" for the E-Rate program.

The Clinton Administration fired back today. In a commencement speech today at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, President Clinton praised the E-Rate program, but warned that "some businesses have called on Congress to repeal the initiative. They say our nation cannot afford to provide discounts to these institutions of learning and health.... I say we cannot afford not to have an E-Rate."

The program, enacted as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is funded by contributions from telecommunications companies. In return, they have received deep reductions in local access charges (paid to local phone companies to initiate and terminate their calls), and the promise of vastly expanded markets (E-Rate applicants).

"It is unconscionable that AT&T and MCI are reneging on their commitment to America's children," Chase said. "Corporations are forever complaining that they are having trouble finding technologically proficient workers. Here is a program that will fully address that concern, and they walk away from it.

"Before they kowtow to the phone companies -- whose profits exceed those of all other industries -- Members of Congress should be demanding an accurate accounting of the amount of money AT&T and MCI have saved through lower local access fees," Chase said.

In support of the E-Rate program, Chase noted that:

• Only 27 percent of America's classrooms are currently wired to the Internet.

• tudents in poor schools are half as likely to have access to the Internet as students in affluent ones (the E-Rate offers discounts of up to 90 percent to the nation's poorest schools).

• There currently are 346,000 unfilled technology jobs in companies that employ more than 100 workers, according to a study by the Information Technology Association of America.

• By the year 2000, 60 percent of jobs will require computer skills; right now, just 22 percent of workers have those skills.

• Only 28% of all students believe they are prepared to use computers in the workplace upon graduating from high school.

"American corporations should be embracing the E-Rate program -- not sabotaging it," Chase said. "Complaining about our workers' technological knowledge, while undermining this program, is the height of hypocrisy.

"Our schools and libraries are dialing 911, asking AT&T and MCI for help, and the phone companies are slamming down the receiver," Chase said. "Americans everywhere should be outraged."