US/ND-1: Tech Support and Long Term Funding
Tech Support and Long Term Funding
Marty Tennant (marty@sccoast.net)
Wed, 28 Aug 1996 12:05:06 -0700
When I graduated from high school (A.C. Flora/'73) in Columbia, SC,
we had a radio station, telescope and observatory, classes in
Radio/TV and electronics. We were not a vocational school, but we
had a core group of students and teachers that made this possible.
I remember many of the junior and senior students working on the
school PA system and other early electronic systems we had in use.
I encourage thought along the lines of advanced technology courses
for high schools, where the students, with appropriate oversight,
run the local networks and systems, and get course credit.
These same students could be hired during the summer to maintain
systems and prepare a new group coming in to learn.
As mentioned in a previous post, School Districts can just as easily
resell telecommunications services as I can, and as I plan to do.
This also introduces the opportunity for outside money sources
for long range funding of technology needs.
My mother is a graduate of the University of SC. The Alumni
Assoc. markets LDDS long distance to their members, and every
phone call generates money for scholarships. Pretty neat.
If you think about the efficient flow of funds, the service providers
that will be offering you discounted services will have to make this
up somewhere. That somewhere will be in your local phone bill.
Why not get telecom service at a discount yourself, for your own
needs, and be able to offer phone service to your student's families
too, at a profit? That way, the money flows are direct and not dependant
upon Federal boards and individual PSC decisions.
This is of course, all hinging on the discount levels established for
educational, library and medical users. This is similar to the problem
the FCC had to go thru on the wholesale discount for local exchange
service. It will be interesting to see how this discount level for
schools/library/medical users will be set.
Marty Tennant
President
Low Tech Designs, Inc.
"Bringing Technology Down to Earth"tm
"Common Sense Computer and Communications Solutions"tm