(A)-627-7/473AH80010 Texas Consumer Education and Communications-60- -642-978 -857-305 (A) 646-T/413AH80082 Public Communication Foundation for 2 1,000,000 2,378,882 647-7/41-3AH80061 South-Texas-Educationa-Broadcasting 16 KEDT-TV 332-752 443-670 (1)-707-7/413AH80051 University-of-Houston, Houston (E)-383-R/4138H80010-Texas Southern-University-Houston (-387-R-4138H80038-Central-Texas-Colleger-Killeen (6) 389-R/4138H80112 The University-of-Texas-at-Austin (E) 438-R/4138H80092 University of Houston, Houston 88.7 KUHF-FM 56,961 75,948 678-T/413AH80015 Guam Educational-Telecommunications Corp. PUERTO RICO (I) 450-R/413BH80009 Agana Department of Education, Hato Rey 91.3 WIPR-FM 117,000 156,000 Mr. MARQUIS. Yes, sir. I would like to have the testimony come essentially from Mr. Howard Hitchens, who is Executive Director of Administration for Educational Telecommunications and Technology. Mr. Hitchens is a member of the board on the Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications. Mr. HIGHTOWER. We welcome you and would be happy to hear from you. STATEMENT OF DR. HOWARD HITCHENS Mr. HITCHENS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am speaking, of course, on behalf of the Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications, and I am at the present time the Vice President of that consortium of 23 educational and communications organizations. The Council has a many-year history, and at the moment it is acting as education spokesperson in regulatory and legislative activity affecting educational telecommunications. The organization engages in a number of activities designed to increase knowledge in the field, including the sponsoring and arranging of regional and national conferences on communications technologies and education, the circulation of technical and policy monographs and servicing our members' requests for advice and counsel in telecommunications. We would like to speak, Mr. Chairman, to two issues before your subcommittee, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, NTIA, and the Public Telecommunications Act of 1978. As you know, NTIA was established last year to advise the administration regarding telecommunications and information matters, and to administer related grants programs. The JCET is not prepared to discuss many of the NTIA responsibilities and their appropriations, except to note their importance and hope that they can be funded sufficiently to accomplish their purposes. However, JCET can speak authoritatively with respect to NTIA's telecommunications application activities, including satellite development and the public telecommunications facilities grants program. The JCET has been an instrument for dealing with emerging technology for the education community. For more than five years, the Joint Council has participated in the development of satellite communications for public service via such experimental spacecraft as NASA's ATS-1, -3, and -6, and the joint United States-Canadian satellite, CTS. The JCET is a founding member of the Public Service Satellite Consortium, a group of more than 100 institutions and organizations interested in applying the benefits of this powerful communications technology to the improved delivery of public services on a cost-efficient basis. Making the transition from research and development experiences on experimental satellites to ongoing cost-effective operational services via present domestic satellites is a critical bridge to achieving the demonstrated benefits which this new technology can offer. The NTIA program subactivity, "Telecommunications Applications" uniquely addresses this essential task. Unless adequate support and Federal leadership is provided, the task of aggregating the public service sector, of developing near-term applications via |