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Public Launch of the Coalition - Feb 16Submitted by ilCTC on Tue, 2006-02-21 13:25.
Thursday, February 16 was Illinois' Community Technology Day. Our new Coalition gathered together in Springfield to publicly announce ourselves to Illinois' legislators and to affirm our commitment to grassroots values in the cause of Digital Literacy, Access & Equity. Meeting at ComputerBanc, a Springfield CTC/Computer Recycling Center we reflected on our core values and the status and history of Digital Literacy efforts in Illinois. We closed our meeting with some words from Marty Cohen, currently Director of Consumer Affairs in the Office of the Governor. Our trip to the Legislature met with a small scheduling snafu quite out of our control: the schedule of the House was moved up by 3 hours the day before. Consequently we were unable to be recognized as planned. Nevertheless, on the floor of the House we found opportunity to present an award from CTCNet Chicago to Representative Connie Howard for her long service as Illinois' Civic eChampion. Representative Howard chairs the Eliminate the Digital Divide Advisory Committee and as we have reported, her bill - HB3650 - passed bouth houses with near unanimous support (there was but one non-vote). We await the Governor's signature, but our deeper concern is the level at which this program will be funded for the coming year. We firmly believe that funding should be in the 8 to 11 million dollar range. A modest increase compared with the level at which we know Digital Literacy programs should be funded in Illinois. If you endorse our Coalition's values, thank your elected officials for their support of HB3650 and ask that they follow-up on that support with a commitment of resources sufficient to make an impact on the Digital Divide. Each year the average DCEO CTC grant has decreased. We know there are many qualified organizations trying to serve the Digital Literacy and Access needs in their community. Help DCEO fund more of these worthy programs. ( categories: Statewide | Central Illinois )
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