Federal plans to close the digital divide for Native Americans are shaping up to include a small telecommuncations surcharge for the rest of the nation, USA Today reports.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard announced plans to help 300,000 poor Native American families by offering them telephone access for $1 per month. The program will be paid for through a 0.4-cent surcharge to long-distance telephone bills for other consumers, the FCC reports.
The initiative is ultimately aimed at getting Native Americans logged on to the Internet so they can participate in the "new economy." The program was announced Monday by President Bill Clinton during a tour of California and Southwestern states.
At the same time, Microsoft Corp. announced it would donate $2.5 million worth of software and $200,000 in cash, to eight Native American colleges -- Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, N.M.; Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas; Northwest Indian College in Bellingham, Wash.; Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Mont.; Fort Peck Community College in Poplar, Mont.; Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency, Mont., and Minnesota's White Earth Tribal and Community College.
Jose C' de Baca, executive director of the American Indian Science and Technology Education Consortium, told the Associated Press that Native Americans are being forgotten in the quest to close the digital divide.
"With a high level of poverty and geographical isolation, American Indians are the ethnic group most likely to be caught on the wrong side of the digital divide," de Baca said.
Clinton visited the rural Navajo community of Shiprock in New Mexico, which has a high student dropout rate and telephone service in only 22.5 percent of homes. Poor Native American households currently qualify for discounted telephone service, but the cost still remains too high for many. One-third of Indians live in poverty, compared with 13 percent of Americans overall, USA Today reports.
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