When people ask me as a college president what they
can do to support education, I surprise them with four short words: "Help us get
broadband."
Don't misunderstand, broadband is just part of what we need. Like any college
president, I want our students to have a larger library, a wider selection of
course offerings, distinguished visiting scholars to complement an outstanding
permanent faculty, and beautiful physical facilities. However, for a community
college in rural Texas (or anywhere in rural America), one of the greatest
immediate benefits for our students would be the ability to have high-speed
Internet connection known as broadband in their own homes.
Along with 14 other colleges and universities in northeast Texas, my school,
Panola College, uses the Internet and Interactive Television to provide
"distance learning" to students who can't attend classes on college campuses but
want to earn a college degree or enhance their professional background with
technical or continuing education courses. This collaborative program, which
reaches 50 counties containing 46 percent of Texas' rural population, is called
the Northeast Texas Consortium (NETnet.org). It enables students in rural Texas
to stay home to keep the family farm or business alive while also getting an
education.
Panola College's online offerings include 105 courses and three degrees in areas
such as business, Registered Nursing, and teacher education. We provide
instruction to firefighters, police, first responders, and folks on different
work schedules. We also offer dual credit, early admission courses in English,
history, math, and biology for rural high school students who can't travel to a
college campus. Panola's enrollment in on-line courses has jumped from
approximately 300 to more than 3,000 students in the past six years. In
addition, through NETnet, students can earn bachelor and graduate degrees.
But good as our distance learning program is, many students get much less than
they could if they had at-home connection to broadband "" the always online
connection necessary for streaming video; to replay a missed lecture; to
participate in online discussion with classmates and professors; and to readily
download large studies, academic reports, and other information materials that
are standard fodder in the typical college course. With broadband at home, such
educational tools are available whenever the student wants. Reliable broadband
access is especially important for students like ours who often work varying
shift hours at full-time jobs or live by the natural rhythm of a farm or ranch
and require the flexibility in their studying hours.
However, for most of our students, broadband at home simply is not an option ""
either the wires do not run to their community or the service is so expensive
they cannot afford it. The way distance learning works now, students must drive
to locations where they can get access to high speed Internet. At home, most
rely on "dial-up" connections that tie up the family phone lines and are
restricted to one user per line (a special problem in a multi-student household
solved by broadband). "Dial-up" can take hours to download a large file, and
cannot handle streaming video at all. Sometimes, an incoming call or other
glitch knocks the connection offline "" in the middle of a download, a lecture,
or an online discussion. It is as if we have given our students a very good
bicycle, but are asking them to compete in a world where everybody else owns a
sports car.
Right now, the U.S. Senate is considering legislation that can help close the
gap and deliver more broadband to my students in Texas and to every rural
community in America by removing regulations that limit competition and enabling
telecom companies to deliver broadband services wherever they choose.
Dr. Gregory S. Powell is President of Panola College in Carthage, Texas.