Remarks of 
                               Reed Hundt
                Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
                        at Murch Elementary School
                              Washington, DC
                             October 16, 1996
                        (as prepared for delivery)

It is a real pleasure for me to be here at the Murch Elementary
School and to have the
opportunity to speak with people who have taken such an active
role in making the Internet
an integral part of our children's learning experience.  

As caring parents and educators, you have recognized that we are
truly standing on the
precipice of a revolution in learning. With the tools of modern
technology and
communications, we can give our children unprecedented
possibilities to learn, explore and
grow. And as you also know, it is only by supplying them with
those tools that we can
prepare them to survive and prosper in the 21st Century. 

The study conducted by Council of the Great City Schools,
Scholastic and CAST confirms
what you and I have believed for a long time: Access to the world
of on-line information and
learning really does benefit students. It enhances learning by
encouraging students to explore,
to think critically, and to take an active role in their own
educational adventure. 

I think it particularly noteworthy that the students with access
to the Internet not only
presented their final projects in more creative ways. Their
projects were judged to be more
complete, to present a fuller picture of different elements of
the topic and to provide a better
synthesis of different points of view. 

Seth Teicher, the son of one of my employees at the FCC, was
actually in the fourth grade
class here at Murch that was given Internet access to
participate. From Seth's mother, Gayle
Teicher, I have heard about how excited Seth and his classmates
were as they researched and
learned using the vast resources of the Internet. Seth even
became one of the Webmasters for
the Murch School's home page, eagerly spending hours on the
project in addition to doing his
homework. 

Sending frequent e-mails, Gayle was able to keep in far better
touch with Seth's teacher than
ever before. Seth also discovered -- much to his horror -- that
when he was home sick for two
days, his teacher easily e-mailed him the homework assignments he
gleefully thought he was
missing. 

That's the kind of real learning and student-teacher-parent
interaction that I know we all want
for our children. My only regret is that in order to prove its
point, the study had to
deliberately leave behind a group of "control" classrooms without
access to the Internet. I
wish all the kids here at Murch and at all schools had the
opportunity and the love of learning
that Seth got to experience last year. 

John Dewey said, "What the best and wisest parent wants for his
own child, that must the
community want for all its children."  Luckily, that is precisely
the mandate we at the Federal
Communications Commission have been given by Congress with the
new Telecommunications
Act of 1996. In that law, Congress instructs the FCC to find a
way to make communications
services affordable for all schools and libraries in the country
so that all children -- whether
rural or urban, rich or poor -- will have the opportunity to take
part in the riches of the
Information Age.  

If we are successful in implementing the new Telecom Act so that
the education community
has the wherewithal to build the on-ramp to the Information
Highway, the classroom of the
future will truly be available to all children. The 45 million
teachers and school children who
until now have been left behind, will finally become part of the
communications revolution.
And our agency's initials could well stand for Fostering Children
and Community.

President Clinton recently called on us to give every school and
library in the country free
basic service to the Internet and deep discounts for
sophisticated services like
teleconferencing, with the deepest discounts going to the poorest
schools and areas. He also
said that we wanted to "see the day when computers are as much a
part of a classroom as
blackboards and we put the future at the fingertips of every
American child."

That's a great vision. But it's not just a vision -- it's a
necessity. By the year 2000, some 60%
of all new jobs will require computer skills. But today, only 9%
of classrooms can give
children hands-on exposure to networked computers to prepare
themselves for the real world.
That's 3 times as many as just two years ago. But we still have
91% to go.

The teachers and students in this study have demonstrated that
they are also ready and willing
to do their part: to make sure that computers and connections are
used creatively, and
thoughtfully so that they become effective teaching and learning
tools. I urge all the students,
teachers, and community leaders here today to share your
imagination, savvy and skill with
other schools and students to help spread the learning
revolution. 

Connections and computers are only half the story, as you know.
Teacher training and quality
curriculum are the pillars that hold up the other side of the
house. That is where the
creativity, energy, and contributions of educators, parents, and
the private sector is needed.  

With your continued help and support, we can make sure that the
Information Age does not
take us by surprise, but that our children take it by storm and
that the online learning fever
blazes across the country. 

                                  - FCC -