[olpc-help] OLPC Program in Tarrant County, Texas

[Cathy Young]

Professor Nicholas Negroponte

Chairman, One Laptop Per Child

P.O. Box 425087

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142

 

Dear Dr. Negroponte:

 

When I first heard of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and your mission to
"empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one
connected laptop to every school-age child"; I immediately knew that
your program would be vital to the efforts to improve the educational
needs of the children in my community.  

 

I am the County Commissioner, for Tarrant County, Precinct One, Fort
Worth, Texas.  My precinct includes nineteen (19) zip codes, three (3)
school districts, and 121 individual schools from elementary to high
school.  There are approximately 80,456 students, with 61.51% of them
being classified as "Economically Disadvantaged", 48.8% of them
classified as "at Risk", and 17.21% classified with "Limited English
Proficiency".  Additionally, as reported by the Fort Worth Star Telegram
on April 1, 2008, "slightly more than half the ninth-graders who entered
Fort Worth District Schools in 2000 went on to graduate in 2004",
...according to a report on schools in the nation's 50 largest cities by
an organization founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell.  

 

While Precinct 1 is in the heart of the fastest growing county in the
United States, we mirror the statistics of a third world country.  Other
precincts in Tarrant County are affluent; however, our precinct
possesses all of the urban ills plaguing society today.  Many of our
constituents have never left their neighborhoods, much less the City of
Fort Worth.  They are severely lacking in educational opportunities,
healthcare, and economic advancement.  I am passionate about improving
their outcomes during my tenure as County Commissioner.  The One Laptop
Per Child program is a perfect way to provide exposure beyond the world
they know today.  




I would like to discuss with you a partnership between your organization
and my foundation.  I already have a benefactor ready to finance a pilot
program which would entail the purchase 200 laptops, and we will plan on
giving the computers we purchase and yours to children who are at risk
in our communities.  Additionally, we have managed to engage both the
Center for Urban Education at Texas Christian University, and The School
of Education at Texas Wesleyan University, both of which are located in
Precinct One, as partners in this effort.  They will provide wrap-around
services not only in the use of the technology itself, but in
enhancements to the math and science curricula of the local school
districts.  Programmatically, we will work with selected classes of
middle school students from each of the three school districts which
serve Precinct One, forming each year's students into cohorts which will
remain together through high school graduation.  We hope to make this
program both sustainable and expandable as we move ahead.  I look
forward to visiting with you.  I can be reached at 817-370-4500, or at 
rcbrooks at tarrantcounty.com <mailto:rcbrooks at tarrantcounty.com>  .

 

Sincerely,

   

Roy C. Brooks  

 
Catherine A. Young
Community Outreach Coordinator
for Commissioner Roy C. Brooks
6551 Granbury Road
Fort Worth, Texas  76133
817-370-4500
817-370-4503
 
"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted"
Randy Pausch
 
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