Bush vs. Clinton

The current administration's priorities differ from its predecessor's.

By Andrew Trotter

Is technology a tool to open new educational horizons, or to connect the dots efficiently on today’s educational map?

States and school districts turning to the federal government for help will find that the Bush administration has decided technology should be used to connect the dots—as tightly defined by the accountability mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Administration officials argue that a decade of federal investments in educational technology have demonstrated too little impact on academic achievement. As a corrective, they say, when budget decisions are made, the value of educational technology needs to be weighed alongside other...