If signed by President Bush as expected, a bill passed by Congress Oct. 16 to overhaul the federal office in charge of education research will eliminate within two years the ten Regional Technology in Education Consortia (RTECs)—agencies that help school districts effectively plan for, use, and evaluate technology.

Despite this provision, educational technology advocates say they are mostly pleased with the legislation, because it also ensures that technology will continue to play a prominent role in the government's research efforts.

The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (H.R. 3801) replaces the current Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI)—a division of the U.S. Department of Education—with a new Institute of Education Sciences.

This institute will function as a separate, independent office governed by a director and a board. It will consist of three national centers: one for statistics (the National Center for Education Statistics, which currently exists), one for research, and a third for evaluation and regional assistance.

The measure eliminates through consolidation both the $10 million RTEC program and the Eisenhower Math and Science Consortia, adding their functions to the Regional Education Laboratories and the Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers programs. There are currently 15 Comprehensive Centers, but the new law would require no fewer than 20. It also suggests rolling current RTEC and Eisenhower funding into the Comprehensive Centers program, raising its funding to a recommended $80 million.

To ensure a smooth transition, the RTECs would be funded through 2004 under the new law.

"We obviously would like to have seen the RTECs funded, but we are pleased to see that they will be funded for at least the next two years," said Jee Hang Lee, senior legislative assistant for Leslie Harris & Associates, a legal firm that represents the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in legislative affairs.

Richard Hershman, vice president for legislative affairs at the National Education Knowledge Industry Association (NEKIA), which represents the RTECs and other OERI-funded institutions, applauded the bill, but admitted some disappointment.

"We're generally pleased with the outcome," Hershman said. "We also had a number of disappointments. The RTECs being eliminated along with the Eisenhower Math and Science Consortia was a major disappointment."

Prior to the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), there were a total of 48 individual technical assistance centers focused on each title of ESEA. But over the years these centers have been diluted and consolidated, offering more general services, he said.

"We favored the continuation of the RTECs because we wanted to maintain that level of expertise and commitment [with respect to technology]," Hershman said.