Helping Close the Computer Gap

While the computer revolution has created opportunities, it has also widened economic and educational disparities. The evidence is obvious in Los Angeles as elsewhere: Cash-starved schools and libraries cannot afford to replace their clunky, ancient computers, and some must do without them altogether. Teachers don’t get the training they need to teach their students--many from homes that cannot afford a computer--how to use them. And schools and libraries do not have the technical assistance to maintain or upgrade their hardware and software.

The $1.1-million contribution to Los Angeles schools and libraries announced Wednesday by Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates won’t solve these problems, but it certainly will help.

The giant software company is giving $500,000 worth of computer software and technical assistance to expand the Los Angeles Public Library’s database. Gates will contribute $100,000 in cash and software to the electronic training center at the Central Library and $500,000 in software to a Los Angeles County Office of Education project to train teachers to use computers in the classroom.

With a net worth calculated in the billions, Gates has been criticized for not being more generous. That’s beside the point; with the recently passed Proposition 218 clamping down on local government, libraries are going to go wanting unless there is more private assistance. Microsoft’s grant to Los Angeles is part of $10.5 million it’s donating this year in cash and software to 32 library systems around the country. That’s worth a big round of applause.