The Feb 19 2009 thing is only referring to switching NTSC over-the-air TV to ATSC digital antenna transmissions. It has nothing to do with eliminating composite/component/vga or even standard NTSC cable, just antenna.
The problem is, many people have perfectly fine VGA monitors and projectors. Projectors are, in fact, ridiculously expensive, even for a "cheap" one, you'll pay $500 or more. If a university/school has already shelled out several thousand dollars to equip classrooms with projectors (that support only VGA inputs), they expect them to last a while. It isn't like software, where you just get the latest updates for free. Investing in DVI projectors (that have the same brightness, resolution, etc as the current VGA ones) is pointless.
They shouldn't be phasing out VGA, if you're going to buy an HDMI laptop, make sure that it also has a VGA output.
DVI -> HDMI (usually without sound) and VGA
HDMI -> DVI (BUT cannot then be adapted to VGA, sound is lost)
VGA -> VGA (cannot be adapted to anything else)