ConnectED is “a tipping point” that could “turn...

ConnectED is “a tipping point” that could “turn a negative cycle into a positive cycle” on education, said National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling Wednesday at an event co-sponsored by CEA and the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation. If broadband is expanded to 99 percent of schools within the next five years -- which the program seeks to do -- it allows cities and states to do bulk purchases for both electronic devices and educational content, Sperling said. “If an entire state was bidding for educational devices, you bet they would get lower prices,” Sperling said. Private companies “would start asking” how they can penetrate that market with lower-priced devices, he said.