At the same time that American students are becoming more and more technologically adept, they are increasingly less and less likely to possess rudimentary capabilities, data from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) indicates. “Think of the way we do research—look up a topic, follow a link to another link to another link—linear,” Pennsylvania school board member Kathy Pettiss explained to the American School Board Journal (ASBJ). “Our kids go 40 different directions at once, just like a spider’s web.”

“They shop sites that have no store—there’s no inventory until someone orders.” The ASBJ is published by the NSBA.
“I fear that reliance on technology is undermining the mastery of basic skills,” Illinois school board member David Kelley told the ASBJ. He may have a point.

An NSBA study shows that “more than 50 percent of the students specifically talk about school and homework” on the internet, ASBJ editor-in-chief Glenn Cook reports. At the same time, “96 percent of teachers now assign homework that requires the use of the Internet to complete,” Cook reveals.

Yet this brave new technology has not transformed parental anxiety over schools into anything approaching consumer satisfaction. “Education was the top concern of more than 40 percent of 1,000 Hispanic voters polled by the National Council of La Raza and Strong American Schools, a nonpartisan education group led by former Colorado Governor Roy Romer,” according to the ASBJ. “Health care and the Iraq war finished with 26 percent each.”

“The poll found that most Hispanic voters blame poor school systems and unsupportive parents for education’s problems.” Other articles in the September issue of the ASBJ catalogue the results of the former:

• “According to the U. S. Department of Education’s 2006 assessment of civic knowledge, only 27 percent of 12th-graders demonstrated proficiency,” ASBJ senior editor Naomi Dillon writes.

• “According to Thomas Toch and Kevin Carey of Education Sector, only half of the 75 percent of high school students who go on to college earn degrees,” another ASBJ senior editor, Lawrence Hardy, writes.

When I sought feedback on the quality of the then-newly opened high school in our neighborhood, a home-owners association board member assured me that it was a first-rate institution. “That’s a technology magnet school,” he gushed.

What none of the technocrats who espouse better living through technology can tell us is what exactly these magnetic schools attract.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.

Phoenix, Ariz.~In his State of Education address, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne unveiled an expanded pilot program that would give students at seven schools personal laptop computers. The program would cost approximately $5 million. “Teachers can better prepare students for the digital economy in a context where every student has his or her own laptop,” said Horne. 

Unfortunately, having access to resources isn’t always enough. Consider this: Despite having text books readily available, only 24 percent of fourth graders and 23 percent of eighth graders in Arizona scored proficient on the highly respected NAEP reading exam. One wonders whether the return on laptop investments will be any better. 

Horne’s long-term vision is “that every student in the state above a certain age will have his or her own laptop.” With about 515,000 students enrolled in grades 7-12 last year, and enrollment climbing, the plan could cost well over $515 million (assuming elementary students don’t receive laptops).  That’s ten percent of current operating expenses for k-12 education. 

Rather than allocate one tenth of the k-12 budget for laptops, legislators should focus on ensuring Arizona students have basic literacy and numeracy skills–skills that are essential if we want students to use laptops for anything beyond video games and music downloads.

Arwynn Mattix is a policy analyst at the Goldwater Institute.