There is no question that the information age is upon us, and that those who are computer competent have an advantage when applying for almost any job. This is probably the reason why the members of the school system's Budget AdColumnsvisory Committee's Information Technology Subcommittee worked diligently to present the Board of Education with recommendations on how to improve Information Technology in the schools. The Subcommittee wants the best for our children.

The trouble is, most of the recommendations require funding. As Board Member Bill Mattingly said, “It comes back to funding. It comes down to what's a priority and what is not.”

This is one of those questions which St. Mary's County residents will need to answer as we move through the 21st century, i.e. “How good is good enough?”

Board of Education President Cathy Allen had obviously found some criticism of present funding practices in the Subcommittee's report, and she was ready to defend the distribution of funds made by the Board. She had asked Chief Financial Officer Dan Carney to be prepared to remind everyone of the choices the Board of Education made when it received notice of an additional $773,718 in State funds for FY `06. There were no additional computers in the choices.

It is easy to understand choosing more all day kindergarten classes. These classes benefit the entire education of the children who are fortunate to have all day kindergarten. It is easy to understand adding special education teachers and a special education Instructional Resource Teacher.

It is harder to understand the choice of $21,000 worth of freshman football being more important than computers that work well, or a $44,090 secretary for the Human Resources Department being more important than computers for students.

Board President Cathy Allen said the students that are coming out of the 7th grade Information Technology Science course are amazing. Based on the students who made presentations at a Board of Education meeting last year, I agree. But those students were amazing before they went into the class.

Last fall, the Board presented the work of some of its best students. After their presentation, I talked with several of them. All the students that I talked to had a computer at home and had been working with the programs they used for their presentations for some time before entering the IT course.

The school system was especially proud of a young lady who could type 120 words a minute. For 5 years, I worked for an employment agency that provided top of the line legal secretaries to lawyers. In those 5 years we tested hundreds of people. One of those we tested could type 120 words a minute. That the schools system's young lady could type 120 words a minute was not the work of the school system. If they showed off a fumble fingered youngster who couldn't find the letters on the keyboard when he started and now can type 5 words a minute, that would be the school system's work. This young lady's talent was the work of God. I, for one, don't think the school system should be taking credit for the work of God.

But that's not all that came out of those Information Technology Science courses. One of my friends said she was shocked when her son came home and asked to show her something new he had learned in the class. He typed in the address for a porn site which he got from looking over a neighbor's shoulder in IT class, and up it came.