The Digital Divide: Still a Problem at School

Since the mid-'90s, America's schools have made astonishing progress in gaining access to the Information Highway. Virtually every school -- 95% at last count -- now has at least some access to the Net, up from just 35% in 1994. Even more important, 63% of public school classrooms were wired as of the end of 1999, up from only 3% in 1994.

But the picture is far less encouraging in America's poorest schools. In these schools, where 71% or more of the kids qualify for a reduced-price or free lunch, only 39% of the classrooms are wired. That's only a little more than half of the 74% of classes that are wired in the nation's richest schools. What makes this disturbing is that poor schools also tend to have the worst libraries, meaning their kids have the greatest need for the information available over the Net. Here's the breakdown:

How the number of classrooms wired to the Net varies by wealth:
The % of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch	% of classrooms wired
Under 11% eligible	74% wired
11% to 30% eligible	71% wired
31% to 49% eligible	68% wired
50% to 70% eligible	62% wired
71% or more eligible	39% wired
DATA: National Center for Education Statistics

	This article was originally published by Business Week on January 9, 2001 © 2001 Business Week

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