In 1991, Seattle voters approved a $22 million technology levy for schools, ensuring that nearly all schools would have enough classroom computers for their students. At the same time, the disparity between children's access to computer technology at home was stark. In 1993, administrators at Colman and Hawthorne elementary schools, located in largely minority neighborhoods in Seattle’s Central Area and Rainier Valley, estimated that only 5% of their students had personal computers available at home. To address this disadvantage, the two schools partnered with the Union Gospel Mission and the Seattle Learning Alliance to provide a staffed and equipped computer lab for their students after school hours. The Union Gospel Mission, which already offered meals and before- and after-school care for Seattle schoolchildren, provided computers for after-school use of the Colman and Hawthorne students at its Holly Park youth center. The Seattle Learning Alliance, a partnership of community groups and the Emerald City Rotary Club, planned to raise funds to increase the number of computers at the center to 30 within a year.

This photo shows third graders at Colman Elementary School working at computers.

Caption information source: Computers For Kids, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 18, 1993, p. 10
Caption information source: Partnership Lets Kids Do Homework in Computer Lab by Lynne K. Varner, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 9, 1993, p. B1