September 22, 2000

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman Thursday announced $18.7 million in grants to promote the use of technology in education and medicine. Glickman made the announcement at the Raisin City Elementary School in Raisin City, CA, near the Community Medical Centers of Fresno County, which received a $206,000 grant to establish a telecommunications network.

That network will provide rural residents -- including medically under-served farm workers in the surrounding area with round-the-clock access to medical care. The project includes equipping a mobile medical van with telemedicine equipment to reach out to and visit farm workers and other rural residents who would likely not otherwise receive medical care.

The awards also include a $350,000 grant to establish distance-learning classrooms at three high schools in the Union (MS) Public School District. The new facilities will give students in small, isolated communities there access to upper division instruction through a regional cooperative distance-learning network.

Among the other awards is a $277,000 grant to create distance-learning hubs in Clay Center, Doniphan and Superior, NE. A $325,000 grant was awarded to Copenhagen (NY) Central School for distance-learning technology to upgrade agricultural science programs in sparsely populated rural areas near the St. Lawrence River.

The 84 grants include $11.3 million for 49 distance learning projects encompassing more than 300 educational facilities, which will enable students in rural school districts to participate in classes taught by instructors at distant locations, or to access information from libraries and other learning centers located far from their schools.

More than $7 million will fund 35 telemedicine projects, involving nearly 200 medical institutions that will use new telecommunications technology to help patients in isolated rural health clinics be examined, diagnosed and treated by doctors working in distant medical centers.

Further information about the grants is available on the web at http://www.usda.gov/rus/dlt/dlml.htm.