Public television is America’s largest classroom. Local stations are using their resources to enhance educational opportunities for students and their parents – all the way from preschool to college and then to the workplace.

In keeping with our long-standing leadership in using new technologies for educational and public service purposes, the nation’s public television stations stand ready to make a historic commitment to all Americans through the conversion to digital broadcasting. Digital broadcast technology can serve the same function as full, two-way interactive broadband services. Public television stations have committed the equivalent of one multicast digital channel – an average high-speed data rate of 4.5 megabits per second (Mbps) – for formal early childhood, K-12, and post-secondary education. By converting its current system of transmitters and translators to digital technology, public television can reach 99 percent of America’s schools and homes to deliver data at rates 80 times faster than 56K dial-up modems and 15 times faster than DSL connections.

Public television stations can use digital technology to provide high-speed data access and educational services to homes and schools. These services include datacasting to provide for shared student support and shared library resources for distance learners, multicasting to improve elementary and secondary education, and providing rural broadband service. Digital television is a particularly promising tool for higher education because public television stations can use it to enable its community of viewers to participate in the intellectual life of a college or university.