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WV SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS GIVING WAY TO ON-LINE ACCESS |
| (12/27/2010) |
| Printed textbooks are on their way out. The state Board of Education is asking lawmakers for $271 million to help schools statewide to tradition from textbooks to on-line content. The state board wants to provide more than 300,000 laptops or other mobile devices for every student and teacher in the state. The board does not acknowledge that many rural areas of the state are at the end of the food chain with Internet access. but access would not likely be required from student residences, since the material would be downloaded on their computer. Board members say they want to ensure that schools have enough support personnel and bandwidth to use new classroom materials. "We've got to start the process right now. We really can't move education forward without the funding," said board President Priscilla Haden. A Charleston newspaper article gave a breakdown of the funding request, which includes more than $169 million for 282,130 "mobile student devices," such as iPads. Another $19.8 million would be used to buy 22,000 laptops for teachers. More than $47.2 million would be used to hire 282 technology support specialists and 445 technology integration specialists for schools, along with $100,000 to train those specialists. The Department of Education also wants $95,400 to increase Internet bandwidth around the state and $3.1 million for hardware upgrades, maintenance, Internet filtering and program licenses. The state board presented an optional four-year funding plan under which schools would receive $54.3 million the first year, $72.6 million in the second year, $72.9 million in the third year and $73.3 million in the fourth year.
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