Iowa’s public universities are requesting more than $200 million for building projects on their campuses, but the Iowa Board of Regents is asking why new buildings are needed as online learning is booming at the state’s three public universities.

The university plans to get $70 million in state funding over the next five years for the project with the rest covered by private donations.

most school districts do not have the necessary infrastructure to support online and computer-based learning that advances in education technology require.

New York City’s plans to move textbooks from paper to digital form is an important first step in modernizing the city’s 1,600 traditional public schools. To get benefits of e-books, the city would need to provide a computer or tablet to every student and give schools access to a fast Internet connection.

New K-12 education technology startups must contend with corporate conglomerates that continue to dominate the K-12 market.

Higher education startups have already found that elite universities and their tightly knit communities of academics are certainly not an inviting field for cost-cutting, potentially job-threatening startups. But K-12 education is an even more complex animal, governed by larger teachers’ union and a web of state, local and federal funding and regulations.