(FORTUNE Magazine) – Hooking into a network isn't cheap: Classrooms rarely have the necessary computers, modems, or even telephone lines, not to mention cash to cover phone bills and network connection fees. Add to that the cost of teacher training -- a crucial expense. Says Beverly Hunter, a former program director at the National Science Foundation: ''Just connecting people up doesn't work.'' To get their students on-line, many teachers dig into their own pockets or scrape together grants and donations from the National Science Foundation, nonprofit organizations, and businesses. The Issaquah, Washington, school district got high school computerphiles to build its network. The students wired the school buildings, installed network cards in personal computers -- and even taught their teachers to use E-mail. Schools don't always have to start from scratch. ''You already have a lot of technology in place,'' says Denis Newman, a scientist at Bolt Beranek & Newman, an R&D firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He's doing a national study of school networks. Newman finds that many districts operate computer links that let administrators in different schools pool accounting information, student records, and other data. Those networks, he says, have enough capacity to support student traffic too; administrators need to design their systems so records are safe from tampering and classes also have access. Harry Miller, an official at New England Telephone in South Burlington, Vermont, thinks getting schools on-line shouldn't mean pumping up budgets. He tells school administrators in his area to tighten their belts before looking for handouts. ''We can do more with less, though teachers and schools don't like to hear that,'' he says. One of Miller's proposals: Rather than employing specialists to teach health, say, or art, schools should recruit ''master teachers'' with broad expertise. Yet when a school district comes up with a thoughtful plan for using technology, businesses ought to pitch in, he believes: ''From now on, we'll just have a different kind of school, one where the business community provides certain resources on a sustained basis.'' Voters also show surprising willingness to pay for classroom high tech. Last spring voters in the Colchester, Vermont, school district approved a bond issue to raise $625,000 over five years to upgrade computing and communications gear at five elementary schools. At the same time, to show their displeasure with the rising cost of salaries and health benefits for teachers and other school-district employees, they voted down the budget for the coming academic year.