To Succeed Today, You Need the Right Connections : Volunteers are sought to hook schools to Internet on Saturday

No school should be left off the Information Superhighway in a state whose name is synonymous with high tech. Getting all of California’s schools online will take money--and volunteers such as those who will spend this Saturday wiring classrooms as part of NetDay, an admirable effort that will connect our state’s schools to the Internet.

President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore are scheduled to help “pull wire”--install the necessary interior lines--at schools in Northern California. Parents, teachers, “techies,” “webheads” and others will make the connections at thousands of other public and parochial campuses.

Many schools still need volunteers and sponsors willing to donate about $400 for a wiring kit and provide a person who has the expertise to use it. Children especially in inner-city neighborhoods, older suburban communities and rural areas will get shortchanged unless NetDay attracts broader support. The goal is to make connections to at least five classrooms and a library at each school.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a wealthy businessman, has provided computer hardware and software to 350 public and parochial schools in L.A. County since 1987. That’s the kind of support students need--but you don’t have to be a millionaire to help.

Riordan supports NetDay and is encouraging city workers to volunteer. Elected officials across the state--members of city councils, boards of supervisors and especially school boards--should hit up the private sector, supporters, friends and neighbors to help this Saturday. They can easily find the schools by looking at the red and yellow dots on NetDay’s map on the World Wide Web (see address below). Californians without access to the Web can call local school districts.

Los Angeles Schools Supt. Sid Thompson is encouraging district employees to volunteer. Technical people are key to the operation, but others too are needed. So far, teachers and parents have signed up to help at more than 70 L.A. campuses, but hundreds of schools in South Los Angeles, the Eastside, the San Fernando Valley and near downtown will be left out unless there is more support.

The Orange County Department of Education is strongly supporting NetDay, and volunteers have signed up at many schools. The problem is a shortage of sponsors providing the wiring essentials.

Throughout the state, major sponsors are setting fine examples. Pac Bell is donating 1,000 wiring kits, hundreds of volunteers and free access to the Internet.

Schools also can count on free access from MCI and Internet accounts from America Online and Netcom. JPL, Ticketmaster, Lockheed, TRW, Disney and the Gas Company are sending hundreds of volunteers. Local universities, including USC and UCLA, are volunteering staff and students.

NetDay is the brainchild of John Gage, who is chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, a Mountain View computer maker, and Michael Kaufman, the director of information technology at KQED, a public television station in San Francisco. They say they are organizing the equivalent of a “high-tech barn raising.” The target is connecting as many as 5,000 schools on Saturday, and more campuses by June.

California has 13,000 public, parochial and private schools. They all belong on the Internet. NetDay is more than a marketing gimmick. It’s about ordinary Californians making a special effort to produce extraordinary results.

To Take Action: Access the NetDay96 site on the Internet at https://www.netday96.com. To volunteer, dial (800) 55NET96, the Los Angeles Unified School District at (213) 625-4121 or your local school district.