Palm Beach County is the largest county in Florida by land area; at 2,386 square miles, it is over 800 square miles larger than the state of Rhode Island. As of 2007 the county's estimated population was over 1.35 million and quickly growing, making it the 29th most populous county in the country.

The part of county government that handles the tech and networking of various public operations is Information Systems Services, where my father, Mike Butler, serves as Network Services Director. The network he created connects cities and municipalities, law enforcement, emergency services, health services, educational institutions, and nonprofits countywide.

His latest project is what makes him the coolest guy in America, and makes Palm Beach County an unlikely leader into territory widely discussed but so far uncharted by any other county government in the nation: completely free high-speed wireless access in the county's poorest districts, along with free computers in the homes of the poorest students. The whole package, free. No halfway broadband initiatives here.

The project's small test district, Pleasant City, has had free access for one year, and through the School District of Palm Beach County 50 families received free training to use the free computers refurbished by students at the tech magnet high school.

"On the first day, after the first five families received computers, other families were immediately asking us for computers," says Butler. "People were desperate, and we sent out more."

Over the last year, the students in these families saw their grades jump from a low D to a high C average. That sounds like a successful start to me. The county has applied for some $20 million of the federal broadband stimulus to expand this project to several other areas that need it. And according to US Senator Bill Nelson's office, it seems likely they'll get it.

The largest of these poverty pockets is The Muck; the southeast shore of Lake Okeechobee, out west past the county's central farmlands. Belle Glade, Pahokee, and surrounding communities were built on agribusiness and home to generations of migrant workers. Once famous for winter vegetables and commercially successful, now famous for producing NFL players and economically devastated. A Pahokee child interviewed Obama about how he intended to improve education, and has since become a semi-famous child journalist, while Pahokee now seems to hinge its economic hopes on a new marina.

Palm Beach County provides the United States half its sugar, along with other crops. Today, one man in a truck can harvest the sugarcane it used to take dozens of workers in the muck. Today an historically poor, undereducated community of laborers, (once with the nation's highest AIDS density, and once with the nation's highest violent crime density), suffers nearly 45% unemployment.

The county network is connected to the Florida LambdaRail, part of the National LambdaRail network; a fiber network owned and operated by major universities and research organizations which can provide the county internet access at least 40 times faster and 30% cheaper than commercially available high-speed. This expansion of available speed and capacity will make it easier and cost-effective to provide internet access to areas including Belle Glade and Pahokee, parts of Delray and Riviera Beach, and West Palm. The county will extend its network out to these areas and then, via radio towers, send thousands of the poorest students free wireless internet.

The School District of Palm Beach County will continue to have students refurbish the computers it normally cycles out every year, and those computers — preloaded with necessary and useful software — will end up in the homes of students living in poverty. Their families will be trained by the school district to use the computers, and how to regularly access Edline.net, where parents, students, and teachers log in to stay informed about their schools, classes, curriculum and grades.

In a state whose schools are leaving most children behind one way or another and clamoring for the few dollars the state legislature sees fit to allot the (promising) children, this sideways approach is an example of a handful of relatively unknown public servants setting out to serve the public. If it's easier to get millions for tech and then funnel it into education — bypassing at least a portion of the corrupt — why not? Obama's broadband spending is just an open window for the clever. People can continue to fight for "more important" direct funding for education and economic development, but in the meantime…

My tech-geek dad may not be able to feed thousands of hungry bellies but he can do his best to cater an informational feast for hungry minds. Given the right opportunities most children learn and grow, and more bright and curious children will helpfully contribute to their communities.