Release No. 0546.96 Laura Trivers (202) 720-4623 ltrivers@usda.gov Claiborn Crain (202) 720-1363 CLINTON ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES GRANTS FOR RURAL SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS Funds Will Connect Rural Facilities to Information Superhighway WASHINGTON, Oct. 9, 1996--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today announced $7.5 million in grants to help rural schools and health care facilities connect hundreds of thousands of rural residents to the information superhighway. The grants will serve rural residents in 21 states and one U.S. territory. "Today's investment helps create literally thousands of on-ramps to the information superhighway -- ensuring that rural areas are included in the information technological revolution that is sweeping this nation," Glickman said. "Through these grants, USDA will help accomplish the Clinton Administration's goal of having a computer in every classroom of every school in every state in our country. These awards will bring about dramatic changes for the people who call rural America home. Children will have access to more advanced school subjects, they will be computer literate -- and therefore prepared for the competitive, higher paying jobs and careers of the 21st century." The Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed by President Clinton on February 8, 1996, provides customers with more choices and has spurred the development of new services. The law also ensures that all Americans, especially rural Americans, have access to this burgeoning information superhighway. "For example, because of today's grants students in remote rural areas will be able to take advanced math and science classes -- taught at a state university and linked to their school -- classes and subjects that otherwise would be unavailable to them. And a doctor in a rural town can consult about an ill patient with specialists at research hospitals -- providing state of the art, yet close-by, care for patients who might otherwise spend precious time and money to travel to far away hospitals." These grants will provide new education opportunities to 178,000 students in 154 schools and universities and will enhance medical care using modern telecommunications facilities at 62 medical sites serving 1.7 million people. Applicants must also supplement these federal funds with either state, local or private money to create a stronger, more community-supported project. This is the fourth year of this competitive grant program administered by the Rural Utilities Service, an agency of USDA. Since 1993 and including today's announcement, this program has provided 119 grants totaling $35 million to rural schools, hospitals and medical clincis in 39 states and one territory. In addition to the grant program, in FY 1997, RUS will also be able to provide loans to help meet the growing demands for such information technology projects in rural areas. Summaries of the grants follow. # NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at http://www.usda.gov United States Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program Project Summaries, Fiscal Year 1996 Location: Birmingham, Alabama Applicant: Carraway Methodist Health System $285,000 The Carraway Methodist Health System is a not-for-profit major medical system serving the northwest corridor of Alabama. CMHS has committed to place a rural medical clinic staffed with a nurse practitioner in the town of Sulligent, Lamar County. By creating a widespread telemedicine and distance learning network, the Community Network for Education and Telemedicine (CNET), CMHS will address the most glaring of medical underservice needs of northwest Alabama. An RUS grant award will provide CMHS with the funding to purchase the equipment necessary to provide for telemedicine delivery of medical services and teleconferencing for medical education. Location: Fort Yukon, AK Applicant: Council of Athabascan Tribal Government $317,729 The Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments will coordinate with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Interior-Aleutian Campus and AT&T Alascom to implement a project using RUS grant funds to create a system to deliver critically needed educational and medical services to one of the most remote and underserved regions of the U.S. by connecting this remote area of Alaska and the world via the Internet. The project is intended to be used by tribal members and villagers, village government councils and employees, community health aid providers, health professionals, rural human services/prevention workers, degree programs and adult community education university students. Location: Tuscon, AZ Applicant: Arizona Board of Regents University of Arizona $141,150 For years Nogales has struggled to recruit and retain all levels for health care professionals and is formally designated as both a Medically Underserved Area and a Health Professional Shortage Area by the Arizona Department of Health Services. The University of Arizona College of Medicine will use RUS grant funds for telemedicine equipment to establish teleconsult and telediagnostics capability at Maricopa Community Health Center, the major provider of primary care in Nogales. Through this telemedicine network, residents of Nogales will have access to the College of Medicine's 2,709 specialists and sub-specialists. Location: Jackson, California Applicant: Amador County Unified School District $245,000 For the residents of Amador County, the cost of delivering accelerated and challenging courses for at-risk students and educational opportunities for low-income rural adults is difficult due to increased cirricular demands by the state and projected budget deficits. The Amador County Unified School District has proposed to address these issues with a distance learning project that will connect classrooms in seven rural schools for the purpose of enhancing educational opportunities. An RUS grant will assist in funding the School District's campaign to modernize its telecommunications system. Location: Oroville, CA Applicant: Butte Glen Community College District $336,124 Butte College, in a collaborative partnership with Shasta College, Siskiyous College, and Lassen College, will use an RUS grant award to purchase the necessary equipment to expand, improve, and make affordable the use of advanced telecommunications, computer networks, and related advance technologies to rural northern California for the purpose of providing educational and medical benefits through distance learning and telemedicine projects. The proposed project will be designed for both distance learning and medical teleconferences to rural sites in eight counties in northern California. Location: Pago Pago, American Samo Applicant: American Samoa Power Authority $138,955 American Samoa is the most geographically remote of all US insular Areas. It is a group of seven islands in the South Pacific Ocean, located more than 2300 miles from its nearest US neighbor (Hawaii) and is the only US soil in the Southern Hemisphere. Its remoteness, size and limited financial resources have a profound impact on health care and education. The American Samoa Power Authority will administer a project using RUS grant funds to create a telecommunications satellite link between the LBJ Tropical Medical Center and the PEACE SAT Network, in Hawaii, that will provide access to numerous telemedicine and medical information resources. Location: Boise, Idaho Applicant: Boise State University $310,000 Boise State University has proposed a project that will focus on the acquisition, development, and redesign of instructional programming to be used in providing distance learning to one of the most rural areas of Idaho. An RUS grant has been awarded to BSU to purchase and install state-of-the-art teleconferencing equipment for delivery of job specific vocational and applied technology education programs. The proposed project will link ten remote school districts located in seven counties using a real-time interactive instructional telecommunications system. Location: Springfield, Illinois Applicant: Lincoln Land Community College $336,124 Lincoln Land Community College serves residents in the largest (geographically) community college district in the state of Illinois (over four thousand square miles). The majority of the district is rural. LLCC will use RUS grant funds to purchase and implement a telecommunications system that will link the Rural Education and Technology Center to the University of Illinois (Springfield) campus cabling infrastructure, to LLCC education centers, to local cable TV system, to a terrestrial broadcast TV system, to satellites, to the State of Illinois compressed video system, and to the Internet. Location: Leon, Iowa Applicant: Decatur County Hospital $245,394 An RUS grant award will be used by Decatur County Hospital to allow for the expansion of health care services and for strengthening the viability of the rural hospital. This project involves both distance learning and telemedicine components. The overall result will be improved general medicine and mental health services to a seriously underserved and economically disadvantaged rural population. Location: Arkansas City, Kansas Applicant: Cowley County Community College $283,828 An RUS grant award will assist the South Central Kansas Rural Distance Learning Project in overcoming barriers of transportation, distance, and isolation which limit opportunities for interactive education and access to information resources. The project will build upon an existing closed loop interactive television consortium and expand it by creating new open-access gateways from the rest of southern Kansas to the metropolitan area of Wichita -- and eventually to the world. Location: Church Point, Louisiana Applicant: Acadia-St. Landry $50,000 The overall goal of project proposed by Acadia-St.Landry Parish Hospital is to provide, through teleradiology, outreach health care services to primarily low income, economically depressed rural areas of southwest Louisiana that often have difficulty attracting health care professionals. The RUS grant award will be used to purchase the necessary equipment that will assist the area in adjusting to the rural marketplace in which they must compete. Location: Columbia, Louisiana Applicant: Northeast Louisiana Health Network $336,124 The Northeast Louisiana Health Network, Inc., is a non-profit health care consortium of ten hospitals based in northeast Louisiana that serves an area of 9 rural Louisiana parishes with an approximate population of 287,600 people. The RUS grant award will assist the Network's proposed telemedicine plan by providing ways to fill the service void left by declining state budgets for public health care and by the inability to attract health care professionals to much of the project's targeted area. Location: Midland, Michigan Applicant: MidMichigan Regional Health System, Inc. $336,124 An RUS grant will be used for the project proposed by MidMichigan Regional Health System to develop a telemedicine network connecting the computer systems of end-user sites and hubs in the service area for the purpose of transmitting and speeding communication of patient related information. The overall goal is to improve the quality, access efficiency, and cost effectiveness of delivering patient care. Location: Marquette, Michigan Applicant: Upper Peninsula Health Care Network $327,224 The Upper Peninsula Health Care Network is a consortium that includes a regional medical center, 13 community hospitals, and a Medicaid management plan. The focus of the group is to serve the 314,000 residents of Michigan's Upper Peninsula through the promotion of managed care networks, cooperative hospital services, availability of education, access to health care, and assurance of high professional standards. The remoteness, sparse population and severe weather of this area has made access to medical services and medical education a serious problem. Helping to solve the problem, UPHCN will use RUS grant funds to expand the existing network to five unconnected and isolated health care facilities. Location: Arlington, Minnesota Applicant: Arlington Municipal Hospital $203,756 Arlington Municipal Hospital, located in south central Minnesota, is the only remaining hospital serving the rural community of Sibley County. Rural isolation has created many barriers for health care and challenges for communities committed to providing quality health care for its residents. To help knock down these barriers, AMH, utilizing RUS grant funds, will implement a three component telemedicine plan consisting of: emergency room coverage, video conferencing for consultation and continued education, and teleradiology. Location: East Grand Forks, Minnesota Applicant: Northwest Technical College $100,000 Northwest Technical College is a public institution of higher education located Minnesota and has proposed a Distance Learning Project in Licensed Practical Nursing (DL-LPN). The goal of this project is to develop instructional programming in practical nursing which will be delivered via existing telecommunication technology and systems, including Medstar and the Internet, to end-user sites in North Dakota. An RUS grant has been awarded to NTC's project to develop instructional programming in practical nursing and will be part of an electronically complete associate degree in Practical Nursing. Location: Columbia, Missouri Applicant: Boone Hospital Center $336,124 The School-Community Telehealth Network of Boone Hospital Center is a project that creates a partnership between rural hospitals and schools to address the health care needs of these three Missouri counties. An RUS grant award will be utilized to purchase telemedicine and distance learning equipment necessary to link the hospitals and schools in order to offer health care and education services currently unavailable to these rural areas. Location: Tupelo, Mississippi Applicant: North Mississippi Health Services, Inc. $336,124 North Mississippi Health Services is committed to bringing quality health care services closer to its medically underserved rural population. NMHS has produced an affiliation of over 45 medical centers, clinics, and institutions covering a 30 county service area in northeast Mississippi and northwest Alabama. This project is the dream of those rural medical centers and the residents they serve. RUS grant funds will enable NMHS to implement a long-range solution to the problems of serving sparsely populated, rural areas. Location: Roundup, Montana Applicant: High Plains Education $224,135 The High Plains Education Consortium (HPEC) is an alliance of rural school districts in central Montana. The HPEC network proposes to link five schools in central Montana with interactive television capabilities for distance learning. The applicant intends to use RUS grant funds to purchase and install ITV equipment in each participating school, utilizing existing classroom space to accommodate equipment. This equipment, linked with telephone company transmission facilities, will allow these schools to share instructional time for required course offerings that cannot be obtained by each district at its own cost. Location: Havre, Montana Applicant: Montana State University - $278,691 Seven school districts in rural north central Montana have joined Montana State University - Northern and make up the West Fiber Optic Consortium Uniting Schools (West Focus). RUS grant funds requested for this project will be used to purchase equipment for Distance Learning Classrooms and for technical training and assistance for developing distance learning programs. By forming a partnership with local telephone cooperatives and State Universities, the rural schools can afford access to information and programming using advanced telecommunications. Location: Bone, North Carolina Applicant: Watauga County Board of Education $188,532 Watauga County's rural isolation and economic disadvantages, compounded with lack of access to advanced telecommunications technologies, have left most of the rural students without a model for successful personal use of the wealth of information available beyond the classroom's boundaries. An RUS grant awarded to the Watauga County Board of Education project "Watauga LEARNS!" will be used to acquire the advanced telecommunications and computer network infrastructure needed to provide county-wide connectivity among nine schools and the schools county office. Location: Frederick, OK Applicant: Southwest Oklahoma Tele-Education Consortium $79,000 The Southwest Oklahoma Tele-Education Consortium (SOTEC) has been awarded an RUS grant to assist with a proposed interactive television (ITV) network enabling ten schools to expand curriculums, work together and explore new teaching methods in a four county area. The rural communities in the four county region, particularly the students and teachers, are expected to benefit from the project from: shared curriculums; local technical and higher educational opportunities; and local access to business conferences and down-linking of business and commerce information such as global marketing reports, trade information, etc. Location: Waynesburg, PA Applicant: Green County Vocational-Technical School $336,124 Green County Area Vocational-Technical School, in partnership with a consortium of 5 Green County School Districts and Waynesburg College, will use an RUS grant award to establish electronic communication among partners so that teachers and students located in one rural area can connect with teachers and students that are located in a different area, as well as be able to access other information gateways. Location: White, South Dakota Applicant: Deubrook Area Schools 5-6 $336,124 This project will benefit the members of the East Central Interconnect Cooperative, a consortium consisting of six rural schools districts, one multi-district vocational high school, and South Dakota State University. Using RUS grant funding, this project will utilize two-way interactive audio-video technology to enable the participating districts to share classes in their elementary and secondary schools. Location: Irene, SD Applicant: SE SD Distance Learning Challenge $336,124 The Challenge Project -- a consortium of twelve rural K-12 public schools districts, a rural school cooperative and the School of Education of the University of South Dakota -- have worked together to bring technology into their classrooms in spite of limited resources. An RUS grant, awarded to the Challenge Project schools, will be used to purchase interactive video equipment which will enable the schools to use networking technology to connect classrooms together and provide high-speed access to the Internet. Location: Dunlap, Tennessee Applicant: Sequatchie County Board of Education $51,250 Sequatchie County is located in southeast Tennessee adjacent to Hamilton County (Metropolitan Chattanooga Area), and operates a rural school system with a limited tax base which lacks the financial resources to address the distance learning needs of all the students. An RUS grant award will provide funding assistance for the purchase of the computer equipment which will allow the students at the Sequatchie County Middle School to experience distance learning through access to the Internet and other electronic information resources. Location: Midland,Texas Applicant: Midland College $336,124 RUS has awarded a grant to the Distance Learning for Rural West Texas Project which will provide distance learning opportunities to a vast underserved rural area. RUS grant funds will be used to purchase equipment for interactive video distance learning facilities that would extend Midland College credit classes (both academic and technical) to the Regional Technical Training Center (RTTC) in Fort Stockton, Texas, in Pecos County, and the Crockett County Consolidated School District (CCCSD). Location: Uvalde, Texas Applicant: Southwest Texas Junior $335,786 The capacity for small, rural school districts to address the broad range of needs and skills necessary to equip students with the skills necessary to compete in the 21st Century is profoundly limited. However, key educational stake-holders in eleven counties in southwest Texas, served by Southwest Texas Junior College, have gathered together to form the Southwest Texas Network Consortium (SWTNet). SWTNet has proposed a Televilla project to address the educational needs of the area's rural students. RUS has awarded a grant for the Televilla project which will be used to develop infrastructure backbone for Internet access and distance learning. Location: Cedar City, Utah Applicant: Rural Utah Telemedicine $333,330 The mission of the Rural Utah Telemedicine Associates is to provide telemedicine and health care services, health care consultations, and health care management for the benefit of rural Utah and its rural citizens. By implementing a "mobile health clinic" system, many rural communities with little or no health care providers will be able to receive quality health care services in their own community for the first time. RUS grant funds will help to pay for the mobile clinic that is equipped to provide primary care as well as specialty consultation via telemedicine technology. #