Future Plans for Internet Access

Among schools that do not currently have Internet access (35 percent of all schools), 87 percent have plans to obtain access to the Internet in the future (Table 2). Seventy-four percent of schools either had Internet access or indicated that they planned to obtain Internet access by the end of 1997 (Figure 3). All but 5 percent of public schools had or were planning to connect to the Internet by the year 2000.

No significant differences in plans for obtaining Internet access were found by school poverty level. However, schools with larger proportions of students in poverty had lower current levels of Internet connectivity. Proportionately, almost twice as many schools in which over 30 percent of students were eligible for school lunch programs (42 to 47 percent) as schools with lower levels of poverty (22 to 28 percent) did not already have access to the Internet (Table 2). Thus, higher proportions of these schools must become connected if they are to equalize access for students in poverty.

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