BREAKDOWN OF CURRENT TECHNOLOGY SPENDING IN PUBLIC K-12 SCHOOLS
We have estimated that 1.3% of the public K-12 educational budget, or $3.3 billion in 1994-1995, is currently spent on technology. This figure includes estimates for each of the six infrastructure elements described in Appendix A. A bottom-up approach to estimating this number is described in Exhibit 20: "Estimating Spending on Public K-12 Instructional Technology."
To cross-check the reasonableness of this estimate, we placed it up against overall spending figures from the Software Publishers Association, Peter Li Education Group, and Anne Wujcik & Associates. In order to make such a comparison, we adjusted their figures to ensure that we were comparing like items. For instance, the Software Publishers Association estimated hardware and software purchases alone at $2.4 billion for 1993-1994(61)-or $2.8 billion for 1994-1995 assuming a 16.5% growth rate. Excluding administrative use, and including expenditures for telecom charges, retrofitting, professional development and systems operation, leads to an estimate of $3.4 billion, or 1.4% of the education budget. The Peter Li Education Group and Anne Wujcik & Associates estimated $2.4 billion in 1994-1995 for instructional technology.(62) Adjusting this figure for retrofitting, professional development, and systems operation leads to $3.2 billion, or 1.3% of the public K-12 budget.
Footnotes
61 K-12 Education Market Report, supra note 28, p. 61.
62 Peter Li Education Group and Anne Wujcik & Associates, reprinted in
ibid., p. 62.