Cited: Google News
In one inner city Chicago high school nearly one thousand students wait, and wait, and wait, for their turn on one of the 24 computers shared by all of them. In many of the communities where these children live a computer in the home is not even close to the top of the priorities for the limited money keeping the family afloat so when they go to school and still do not have reasonable access to the most basic technology, a PC, it is very frustrating for them, and their teachers. The basic computer skills of these students in many cases can be minimal at best since they have no way to learn even the most simple functions like saving documents or setting up a report on a Word document. 
Educators across the country, especially those in low-income areas, are starting to call the gap between the technology available to some schools versus the utter lack of the same in theirs as the digital divide. The number of classrooms with access to the Internet, much less a high-speed Internet connection, presents an even bigger gap and puts these students even further behind their peers as they are unable to use newer software that requires more Internet bandwidth. The amount of money spend on technology in the classroom varies widely across the country since many more affluent areas are able to supplement their education budget dollars with donations and grants from private companies, their parents, and civic organizations. Inner city schools are often left to upgrade their technology with whatever is left in their dwindling schools budgets, all of which have been severely pared-back given the fiscal crisis most state and local communities are facing.
There is hope however, as Chicago has been selected by the Consortium for School Networking as one of a number of school districts in the U.S. for an initiative to expand digital media in education. Programs like these, which get technology working in the classroom, can have a life-changing effect on the student and the school overall with group projects such as building video games and Web sites helping the students to look at the technological changes taking place every day as opportunities for them and their futures. They become better students, more eager to face challenging material, and more interested in a wider scope of subjects than ever before.
My take:
If we don’t knock down the walls between the haves and the have not’s when it comes to educating our children, the future for our country is in serious jeopardy. With the multiple millions of dollars spent on everything but investments in education, and more important than just money, the brainpower and collective, productive energy devoted to everything but education, it is no wonder that we find ourselves in this dilemma. As many have said when looking at the U.S schools system, “I fear for the future of the Republic.”