United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Health, Education, and Human Services Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-01-29 monographic deposited born digital 81 p. GA 1.13:HEHS-98-35 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-35 P0b002ee18039e19a f:he98035 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-35 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-35 HEHS-98-35 Public schools School districts Aid for education Federal/state relations Educational grants Computers Taxes Education or training Information technology Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Program Manchester (NH) Roswell (NM) Seattle (WA) Internet Gahanna (OH) Davidson County (NC) Letter Report HEHS

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed how five school districts funded their technology goals and their difficulties in finding those resources, focusing on: (1) the funding sources school districts used to develop and fund their technology programs; (2) the barriers school districts have faced in funding the technology goals they set, and their efforts to overcome these barriers; (3) which components of districts' technology programs have been the most difficult to fund, and what have been the consequences; and (4) how the districts plan to handle the ongoing costs of the technology they have acquired.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the five districts that GAO studied used a variety of ways to fund their technology programs; (2) funding sources included money from district operating budgets, special technology levies and bonds, state and federal funds, and private and other contributions; (3) most districts received a majority of funding from one source, although this funding source varied by district; (4) technology directors in the five districts have cited a variety of barriers to obtaining the funds needed to implement technology programs; (5) in all five districts, technology had to compete for funding with other needs and priorities, including school building maintenance, repair, and construction, mandated programs, and additional teachers to handle increased enrollment; (6) community resistance to higher taxes, according to district officials, limited all five districts' ability to raise more revenue; (7) technology directors also cited barriers to obtaining other sources of funding, such as business contributions or grants, particularly because the districts lacked staff to manage fund-raising efforts; (8) furthermore, some officials reported that demographics made them ineligible for some grants; (9) program components that were hardest to fund, technology directors and others said, were those heavily dependent on staff positions; (10) staffing was difficult to fund because some funding sources' could not be used for staffing and because some sources were not well suited for this purpose; (11) to support the ongoing and periodic costs of their technology programs, the districts planned to continue using a variety of funding sources largely as in the past despite some of these sources' uncertainties; (12) most planned to continue to fund annual ongoing costs, such as maintenance and technical support, with district operating dollars; (13) officials were not sure, however, how much these sources would provide in the future as program needs grow; (14) the periodic costs of eventually upgrading and replacing equipment, software, and infrastructure also faced uncertain funding; and (15) officials in some locations noted that at times major funding sources fell significantly short of expectations. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-35/html/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-35.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-35/pdf/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-35.pdf GAO/HEHS-98-35 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-35 Letter Report GAO/HEHS-98-35; School Technology: Five School Districts' Experiences in Funding Technology Programs; Public schools School districts Aid for education Federal/state relations Educational grants Computers Taxes Education or training Information technology Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Program Manchester (NH) Roswell (NM) Seattle (WA) Internet Gahanna (OH) Davidson County (NC) Title 20 Section 6841 Title 20 Section 6846 20 U.S.C. 6841 20 U.S.C. 6846 Public Law 103-227 Public Law 104-104