Educators, cable: more cash for public computer centers

As everybody waits for the government to announce the winners in the first round of broadband stimulus grant awards, nine advocacy groups and a Time Warner Cable executive are calling for the Department of Commerce to boost the amount of funding available for public computer centers in round number two.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated $7.2 billion for broadband stimulus. A minimum of $200 million of that was set aside to expand public computer center capacity. "While this amount is certainly helpful, the first round of grant funding shows that $200 million is simply not enough," a letter to Larry Strickling of the Department of Commerce insists. Libraries and community colleges "have been unable to keep up with the general public’s demand for public access computers..."