I don't know if you're familiar with Sam Blumenfeld, but I consider him and John Taylor Gatto to be some of the few "education experts" worth listening to. About ten years ago I heard Sam explain that the purpose of getting schools on the "information superhighway" was so that the education elites could bypass teachers. Teachers tend to sabotage PC indoctrination. So the idea was to ask the students questions via the internet, and then to compile a dossier on each student. Individual students who were not demonstrating PC proficiency would then receive a customized on-line remediation program.
I thought the idea was outlandish, but now I'm not so sure. Do a search on the "Dear Hilary letter." It's a no-longer private letter written by the president of the Center on Education and the Economy to Hilary Clinton in 1994.