Several participants have commented how difficult it can be for schools to plan for the use of technology and for upgrading technology once they have it due to the costs involved. I wanted to share with the group an additional barrier faced by schools in Wisconsin--revenue caps. Wisconsin several years ago passed a law that provides a cap on school costs. Rather than limit a school district's spending, the amount of revenue that they can raise is capped. The effect that this has had on the ability of Wisconsin schools to access the "Information Superhighway" has been astronomical. Schools that did not begin to build into their base the necessary telecommunications costs have been left with having to go to referendum to obtain funds. If the allowable growth rate is not available in a school's budget to repay a loan to purchase computers for $50,000 or $100,000 the district has to go to referendum for even amounts of this size. To give you an idea of how far $100,000 in technology funding goes for a school, I visited a medium sized school district in Wisconsin (Waukesha). The estimate for category 5 wiring for thier buildings comes to $8.5 million alone. That doesn't even include connecting it to anything like a computer in the classroom. School districts with declining enrollments are especially hit hard. A lot of these districts are faced with a situation where they need to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from their existing programs, let alone try to find money to set aside to purchase technology or access. I can't tell you how often I have encountered school districts in Wisconsin that have planned very well for technology, that have spent years upgrading their equipment. Now, they have a plan in place to replace equipment over a 3 year time frame or 5 year time frame so that they don't fall behind or become outdate. With revenue caps those plans have become useless as districts facing $500,000 per year budget cuts can't even make the first year's replacement of equipment.