Clinton Wants All-Inclusive Web World

Looking ahead to a day when all Americans are connected to the Internet, President Clinton is proposing a two-billion dollar package to help low-income families gain access to computers and the World Wide Web.

Mr. Clinton's plan calls for $2 billion in tax incentives over 10 years, as well as $380 million in expanded federal grants, to encourage the private sector to donate computers, sponsor community technology centers and train workers.

The president was making the announcement Wednesday at a public high school in suburban Washington.

Late last year, the president set a goal of connecting all Americans to the Internet.

"Connecting classrooms and libraries to the Internet is crucial, but it's just a start," Mr. Clinton said in his State of the Union speech last month.

He also was announcing that he will lead a group of high-tech CEOs on a trip to impoverished areas this spring as part of his "New Markets" initiative to direct investment to areas that haven't shared in the nation's good economic times.

A draft White House statement accompanying the president's announcement said the trip would "highlight communities that are using information technology to enhance our children's education, expand access to lifelong learning and create economic growth."

The package also will include a request for $10 million to prepare American Indians for careers in information technology and other technical fields. Members of the Oglala Sioux nation beseeched Clinton to boost job prospects in their community during a stop at South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation on his first New Markets tour last year.

A Commerce Department report in July found that black and Hispanic households are only 40 percent as likely to have Internet access as white families.

And households with incomes of $75,000 and above in urban areas are more than 20 times as likely to have Internet access as households at the lowest income levels.

The Clinton administration has been working with the computer industry, private foundations, nonprofit organizations and civil rights groups to make the Internet more accessible.

"I thank the high-tech companies that are already doing so much in this area and I hope the new tax incentives I have proposed will encourage others to join us," Mr. Clinton said. "If we take these steps, we will go a long way toward our goal of bringing opportunity to every community."

The administration says more than 50 percent of America's schools and over 80 percent of its classrooms are wired for the Internet. The goal is to have all schools connected by the end of this year.

Details of the plan the president was unveiling include:

• $150 million for training new teachers how to use new technologies
• $100 million to create 1,000 Community Technology Centers in low-income urban and rural neighborhoods
• $50 million for a pilot program to expand home access to computers and the Internet for lo-income families

By Kevin Galvin