Clinton bankrolls NetDay $11.8 million goes to wiring classrooms   WASHINGTON, DC (AP) - Calling NetDay the 21st-century version of an old-fashioned barn-raising, President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore joined Saturday's volunteer effort to connect schools to the Internet and ponied up $11.8 million to help. Clinton also pushed the Federal Communications Commission to give schools and libraries $2 billion in annual discounts for Internet service. ``This can make all the difference for communities struggling to make sure their students are ready for the 21st century,'' Clinton said in his weekly radio address. ``Now more than ever, we can't afford to let our children be priced out of cyberspace,'' he said. The FCC is expected to vote on the discount May 6. Broadcasting from the Oval Office, Clinton and Gore used video and computer equipment to link up with NetDay activities around the country, as parents, teachers, corporate officials, communications workers and retirees ran high-capacity cable through classrooms to connect them to the global computer network. Since the first NetDay last spring, which Clinton and Gore incorporated into their re-election campaign, about a quarter-million volunteers have wired 50,000 classrooms. Saturday, Clinton called the effort ``a great example of how America works best when we all work together . . . like an old-fashioned barn-raising.'' Gore announced that $11.8 million in technology literacy grants for classroom computer equipment and teacher training was being awarded to seven states: Alaska, Connecticut, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota and Tennessee. Also sharing the Education Department funds were schools in the U.S. territories of Northern Mariana and American Samoa and schools administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The department awarded $57 million to 14 other states earlier this year. Teleconferencing with students and volunteers in South-Central Los Angeles and Hartford, Clinton said the grants were a reminder that regardless of how many schools were wired to the Internet, ``the hookup is worthless unless the teachers and the students are trained to use it.'' Immaculate High School sophomore Justin Ragsdale and Tawanna Woolfolk, a Hamden High School sophomore had an opportunity to chat with the President Clinton and he assured them that Connecticut would get more funds "to make sure every child will get the technology." Connecticut will get $1.5 million in funding for classroom computers and teacher training. Justin Ragsdale and Tawanna Woolfolk have been active in Connecticut's version of NetDay known as ConneCT96 since its inception about a year ago. The research firm Market Data Retrieval estimates that 27,000 to 40,000 public schools -- about one-third to one-half of the national total -- use the Internet. Other surveys indicate the connection reaches less than 10 percent of the classrooms, computer labs and libraries where students actually sit.