"Access to computers and the Internet has become a basic need for education in our society"
About this Quote
Calling computers and the Internet a "basic need" is a deliberate political upgrade: it drags connectivity out of the nice-to-have column and plants it alongside textbooks, transportation, and heat. Kent Conrad, speaking as a policymaker rather than a tech evangelist, frames the issue in the moral language of public provision. The phrasing matters. "Access" doesn’t sound like a gadget wish list; it sounds like a right you can be denied. And "has become" signals historical inevitability, a quiet way of saying: this debate is over, catch up.
The subtext is the digital divide, but also the political argument about what counts as a public obligation. Conrad isn’t praising the Internet; he’s warning what happens without it. In a school system increasingly built around online research, learning platforms, email communication, and digital assignments, lack of connectivity doesn’t just slow a student down. It marks them absent from the classroom even when they’re physically there. The quote presses on a modern anxiety: education now contains hidden tolls, and the toll booth is broadband.
Contextually, this line belongs to an era when schools were shifting from computer labs to laptop carts to one-to-one devices, and when homework quietly migrated online. By naming connectivity as infrastructure for education, Conrad positions investment in networks and devices as economic policy in disguise: educate better now, compete later. It’s a pragmatic appeal dressed as an ethical one, designed to make denying access feel as indefensible as cutting libraries.
The subtext is the digital divide, but also the political argument about what counts as a public obligation. Conrad isn’t praising the Internet; he’s warning what happens without it. In a school system increasingly built around online research, learning platforms, email communication, and digital assignments, lack of connectivity doesn’t just slow a student down. It marks them absent from the classroom even when they’re physically there. The quote presses on a modern anxiety: education now contains hidden tolls, and the toll booth is broadband.
Contextually, this line belongs to an era when schools were shifting from computer labs to laptop carts to one-to-one devices, and when homework quietly migrated online. By naming connectivity as infrastructure for education, Conrad positions investment in networks and devices as economic policy in disguise: educate better now, compete later. It’s a pragmatic appeal dressed as an ethical one, designed to make denying access feel as indefensible as cutting libraries.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
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