Teachers and the Technology Gap

I just finished reading a blog post by David Warlick where he was amazed at the enthusiasm that he felt from teachers in Colorado and Hawaii, even though the school year has just ended. While I am a bit surprised by their willingness to listen and their excitement (I personally am exhausted), I fear that the gung-ho attutude may be short lived. See, the problem, in my mind, with implimenting technology and "toys" as Warlick put it, into the classroom, more often than not is not the teacher. It is a short-sighted school bored (not a typo), a misguided principal or state big whigs with eyes on test scores instead of real learning. The money to purchase new equipment is not there thanks in large part to Pres. Bush and his cuts even while force feeding us NCLB. I was laughed at when I proposed, that to save network space, we issue each kid their own flash drive. It would work, but the money is not there. Every time I hear about a new technology proposal being shot down or tabled due to money, I can almost hear the Emperor from Star Wars VI say, "Now, you shall pay the price for your lack of vision".