State Technology Plans

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Should there be a requiremenet for state-approved technology plans?

Absolutely not!!  State-approved technology plans are not a "non-cost" 
item. They can be extemely costly.

For example, Wisconsin created a competitive grants approach to funding 
K-12 technology. (The first problem with this is that it has increased 
the disparity between the "technology haves" and the "technology have 
nots"). After the first funding cycle a group of school district 
administrators evaluated the approximate cost in just personnel hours 
that it took to complete the technology plans and the grant application, 
and they could easily prove that the cost was greater than the entire 
amount of grant funding that went to K-12 schools.

In addition, once you mandate state-approved technology plans, you have 
created a "cookie cutter" approach to educational technology -- and that 
will not work, just as it has not worked in other areas of education 
policy."

Bill Cosh
Wisconsin Association of School Boards

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