News Release

Contact: Paul Morris
Maddox Foundation
(662) 449-3699
paul@maddoxfoundation.org

Maddox Foundation announces initiative to put computers in every Mississippi classroom
 

Hernando, Miss., Feb 26, 2002 - At the 1999 Mississippi Economic Council annual meeting, featured speaker Bob Pittman, a Mississippi native and co-chief executive officer of AOL-Time Warner, issued a challenge for the business community to work with state government to place an Internet-accessible computer on every student's desk.

Sitting in the audience that day was one Ronnie Musgrove, the state’s lieutenant governor and candidate for governor. Musgrove, whose public career has been built on championing public education causes, took up Pittman's challenge. He campaignedon the issue.

And two days after being inaugurated as governor in January 2000, Musgrove traveled to DeSoto County where the school district, with the help of Pittman and the non-profit Maddox Foundation, announced an initiative to place an Internet-accessible computer in every classroom in that rapidly growing school district.

At the event, Musgrove announced his initiative to do the same for every classroom in the state by the end of 2002.

“By placing these computers in classrooms across our state, we are giving teachers another tool to enhance the learning environment for our children,” Musgrove said in February when it was announced that 6,325 Internet-accessible computers would be installed this year. “We are giving our students the means to open doors that provide countless learning opportunities for them.”

Musgrove called Internet-accessible computers “the great equalizer for rural, small states (like Mississippi) to compete with more urban states.”