Getting computers and Internet access into the public schools is an idea that has captured the attention of lawmakers, school administrators, teachers, and parents during the last few years. In the 1996 Telecommunications Act, Congress set up a program to help "wire" schools and public libraries for Internet access, especially in low-income areas. Vice President Al Gore has led Administration efforts to move the country towards universal access to the tools of the Information Age. Many states and school systems have launched ambitious efforts to get computers and modems into classrooms. And increasingly, parents and taxpayers view computer labs as an important signal of a school's commitment to quality education.

But the single biggest cost impediment to making schools laboratories of the Information Age is just what you would expect: the hardware. Though the cost of basic PCs continues to drift downward, the price tag is still around $1,000, making them a very expensive addition to the public school classroom.

The Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California has found a way to cut those costs to the bone: The Oakland Technology Exchange.

Reported in Wired News by Randolph Court (now a Technology Policy Analyst at the Progressive Policy Institute), the Technology Exchange is the brainchild of a retired IBM systems engineer named Bruce Buckelew, who noticed how many workplaces were discarding old PCs as they upgraded their information systems. Buckelew realized this junked hardware could be more than adequate to meet the needs of the financially hard-pressed Oakland public schools.

Since the fall of 1996, the Oakland Technology Exchange has received large donations of used machines from area businesses including PeopleSoft, Clorox, and from the U.S. Army. Microsoft and IBM have chipped in software licenses as well. But the program does not simply involve corporate charity, it also enlists students at the Oakland Technical High School. These students work after school refurbishing the computers, installing new software and repairing monitors and computers to maximize their usefulness for other students in Oakland's schools. Now Oakland Tech students have a chance to learn job skills, earn a few bucks, and perform some real community service in recycling computer hardware, at a rate of about 25 refurbished PCs a week. Overall, the program has moved some 3,000 computers into the Oakland Unified School District's 90 public schools.

The Oakland Technology Exchange is an example of the kind of locally driven public-private partnerships that can make big leaps in social progress in areas where state or national policies lag. More importantly, every community in American can emulate its lessons, and its innovative spirit.