I know that other districts are experiencing the same kinds of budget cuts faced by my district. However, I hear that many are continuing to provide technical support and upgrades, which we are thinking of reducing. How are they managing to do this?
Declining technology funds do impact support and expansion of instructional technology initiatives in education. However, results of a recent survey conducted by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and Grunwald Associates showed that there’s more to the story than just available dollars.
According to the survey report, “Digital Leadership Divide: Without Visionary Leadership, Disparities in School Technology Budgets Increase†those schools and districts whose leaders have a vision for technology use plus strong support from the community and parents are more likely to sustain or even expand technology initiatives – more so than schools and districts that lack this visionary leadership and support. Yes, funding remains an issue; however, these leaders tackle the problem by finding ways to raise additional funds or to re-purpose existing dollars.
Submitted by: Susan Brooks-Young
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