Get ready to pay more: Obama pushes ambitious Internet access plan for schools (Congress, Whitehouse)

[EdwardA]

To be paid for by higher cell phone bills. I'm sure Obamaphones are exempt.
Obama pushes ambitious Internet access plan - The Washington Post

President Obama liked the idea laid out in a memo from his staff: an ambitious plan to expand high-speed Internet access in schools that would allow students to use digital notebooks and teachers to customize lessons like never before. Better yet, the president would not need Congress to approve it.

White House senior advisers have described the little-known proposal, announced earlier this summer under the name ConnectEd, as one of the biggest potential achievements of Obama’s second term.

There’s just one catch: The effort would cost billions of dollars, and Obama wants to pay for it by raising fees for mobile-phone users. Doing that relies on the Federal Communications Commission, an independent agency that has the power to approve or reject the plan.

[urbanlife78]

I am fine with paying a little more with my cell phone bill for a program like this.

[Frank DeForrest]

Me too. Anything to make the brain washing more effective

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Frank DeForrest

Me too. Anything to make the brain washing more effective

I know right, education is so horrible, it is easier to control the uneducated.

[hothulamaui]

all schools should have internet access.

[ALackOfCreativity]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

I am fine with paying a little more with my cell phone bill for a program like this.

I am as well but more generally aren't you somewhat disturbed by paying for completely unrelated government spending by increasing a regressive consumer tax on a relatively inelastic good with low marginal costs?

[Frank DeForrest]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

I know right, education is so horrible, it is easier to control the uneducated.

Education is great, but what the fedguv serves up isnt education.

[Workin_Hard]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

I am fine with paying a little more with my cell phone bill for a program like this.

I'm not. Cut foreign aid and reallocate those funds. Educate our own rather than build schools or provide social programs overseas.

[katzpaw]

The cost for the initiative is estimated at $4 billion to $6 billion, and the administration said it could work out to about $12 in fees for every cellphone user over three years.

About 33 cents/month.

[middle-aged mom]

ConnectED was a topic of the 6/6 WH blog:


What is ConnectED? | The White House