[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 76 (Friday, June 16, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5304-S5305]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I would like to take a few minutes to 
discuss an issue of considerable importance, one I feel very strongly 
about and one that I think the Senate should address before the end of 
this Congressional session, and that is Mr. President, the issue of the 
digital divide. The digital divide is one of the key issues the 
Congress is currently facing--and will continue to face--in the 
foreseeable future. Right now we are wrestling with how to best 
encourage growth in this new economy, but at the same time, how to 
ensure that growth is evenly spread, that everyone in our society has 
an opportunity to participate in this new economy and reap its economic 
rewards.
  Mr. President, these are amazing times in which we live and the new 
economy is responsible for much of this nation's unprecedented 
prosperity: the stock market is soaring to unimaginable heights. IPO's 
are occurring at a record pace and creating literally thousands of 
millionaires in this country. The innovations of the new technologies 
are astounding: You can order a Saturn online and the very next day a 
new car shows up in your drive-way. Each day 25,000 new E-BAY 
subscribers sign up for the world's largest auction. The NetSchools 
program provides every child with a kid-proof laptop PC that is 
connected to teachers and classmates using wireless infared technology 
and has had tremendous results improving academic achievement, 
attendance, and parental involvement in extremely disadvantaged 
communities. A surgeon in Boston can direct a doctor in the Berkshires 
to do a biopsy by using telemedicine equipment. These innovations and 
hundreds more like them are changing how we live.
  The wealth creation--for those on the right side of the divide--
generated by this New Economy is breathtaking, Mr. President: College 
students go from the dorm room to the board room as high tech moguls, 
like Jerry Yang and Michael Dell. Starting salaries for high tech jobs 
even for students coming out of college can range from $70,000-
$100,000--even more with stock options. Pick up the San Jose Mercury 
News job section each day and--literally--you will find advertisements 
for upwards of 10,000 high tech and information technology jobs. 
Silicon Valley has created more than 275,000 new jobs since 1992--and 
median family income has soared to $87,000 per year--the third highest 
in the country.
  But as we all know Mr. President, the new economy has not evenly 
spread its wealth to all Americans and income disparity in this nation 
continues to grow. One of the greatest challenges we currently face is 
to connect those not participating in the new economy with the skills, 
resources, and support necessary for them to do so. A January 2000 
study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic 
Policy Institute found that in two-thirds of the states, the gap in 
incomes between the top 20 percent of families and the bottom 20 
percent of families grew between the late 1980s and the late 1990s. In 
three-fourths of the states, income gaps between the top fifth and 
middle fifth of families grew over the last decade. By contrast, 
inequality declined significantly in only three states. Clearly Mr. 
President, the digital divide and the economic divide are closely 
interrelated and must be responded to as such.
  Mr. President, the new economy is more than the latest and greatest 
innovations in information technology and the highest-flying Internet 
companies. It is a knowledge economy, with a large share of the 
workforce employed in office jobs requiring some level of higher 
education. It is a global economy--the sum of U.S. imports and exports 
rose from 11 percent of gross domestic product in 1970 to 25 percent in 
1997. This emerging economy is driven by innovation in every arena from 
traditional manufacturing to health care, and even farming and fishing.

  The new economy is powerful and exciting, but the digital divide is 
real and cannot afford to be ignored. Let me describe to you what this 
divide looks like.
  The Digital Divide:
  61.6% of those with college degrees now use the Internet, while only 
6.6% of those with an elementary school education or less use the 
Internet.
  At the highest incomes ($75,000+), the White/Black divide for 
computer ownership decreased by 76.2% between 1994 and 1998.
  Whites are more likely to have access to the Internet from home, than 
Blacks or Hispanics have from any location.
  Black and Hispanic households are 2/5 as likely to have home Internet 
access as White households.
  Forty-four million American adults, roughly 22 percent, do not have 
the reading and writing skills necessary for functioning in everyday 
life. And an estimated 87 percent of documents on the Internet are in 
English. Yet at least 32 million Americans speak a language other than 
English and they are--again and again--left behind on the Internet.
  Those with a college degree or higher are over eight times more 
likely to have a computer at home than the least educated and nearly 
sixteen times more likely to have home Internet access.
  The ``digital divide'' for Internet use between those at the highest 
and lowest education levels widened by 25% from 1997 to 1998.
  Those with college degrees or higher are ten times more likely to 
have Internet access at work as persons with only some high school 
education.
  Mr. President technology is changing our world. Technology is 
changing our lives, how we work, and how we learn. But this is not just 
a new economy, it is our economy. And ours is not a newly divided 
society. Mr. President, this country has always been a society of haves 
and have nots, and so although we must respond to the unique challenges 
presented by the changing economy and the changing world of work, we 
must also understand that bridging the digital divide is about more 
than just computers and the Internet. In order to meet the challenge of 
bridging the digital divide we must assist the have nots with basic 
necessities, like a good public education system, a safe and clean 
place to live, and adequate health care. We must recognize what I hear 
from business leaders, teachers, students, parents--everyone--the 
biggest technology issue in the United States today is education. And 
we need to make that connection.

  Originally when we talked about technology and education--the earlier 
days of our awareness that there was a growing digital divide--we were 
focused on wiring schools and outfitting them with equipment. Now, 
thanks in large part to the success of the E-Rate program, which we 
worked hard on in the Commerce Committee and which we pushed through to 
passage, now technology and education is about so much more. In just a 
few years most of our schools have gotten on-line. And now the focus is 
on training teachers to effectively use the technology, to integrate 
technology into the classroom, and to improve parental involvement 
through technology.
  What we can do and what we must do Mr. President, is work to harness 
technology to grow our economy and enlarge the winner's circle. What we 
can do and what we must do is work to communicate this single reality: 
to keep the economic growth moving ahead, we need to work together to 
ensure that we have a workforce and a generation of young people 
capable of working with the best technology and the very best ideas to 
raise living standards and expand the economy--and that is why we must 
close the digital divide.
  The digital divide goes far beyond technology to encompass basic 
human needs. Mr. President, if we can ensure that there is a computer 
in every classroom--for every student--the technology will not be 
effectively used, learning will continue to be challenged if the child 
does not have a safe and secure home to go to at the end of the day. If 
a child attends a school that is falling apart, does it matter how many 
computers are in the classroom and whether or not the school is wired? 
If a child lives in a dangerous and violent

[[Page S5305]]

community--a reality for far too many of this nation's young people--
the fear of bullets and gangs is certain to triumph over the desire to 
conquer new technologies. If a child goes hungry, if school is the only 
place that can be counted on for a good meal, that child cannot focus 
on computing and learning.
  Mr. President, these are the issues of the digital divide: adequate 
and affordable housing, safe and secure school buildings, adequate 
health care, qualified teachers, an increased minimum wage, strong 
communities, and affordable day care. We must understand that in order 
to seize upon this brilliant moment of technological advance and move 
our entire nation forward, we must address these basic needs. We must 
shore up the foundation, Mr. President and provide all our citizens 
with opportunity as we march forward in the digital age.
  I ask my colleagues to ponder this for a moment: change is nothing 
new, technology is nothing new, the challenge is the same as it's ever 
been. But we can use these new technologies to extend opportunity to 
more Americans than ever before--or, if we're not careful, we could 
allow technology to heighten economic inequality and sharpen social 
divisions. By the same token, we can accelerate the most powerful 
engine of growth and prosperity the world has ever known--or allow that 
engine to stall. As every economics textbook will tell you, new 
technologies will continue to drive economic growth--but only if they 
continue to spread to all sectors of our economy and civic life. And 
that's the challenge that faces this Congress and this nation.
  Mr. President, we have a real opportunity here--and I urge my 
colleagues to seize it--to close the divisions within our society that 
have always existed and also to close the digital divide.

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