Locked Out of the Virtual Classroom

New York Times Editorial Board, Locked Out of the Virtual Classroom, New York Times, March 27, 2020. Online.

     Jessica Rosenworcel, a Federal Communications Commission member who has been proselytizing on this issue for several years, has rightly called on the F.C.C. to use funds earmarked for connecting schools and libraries to the internet to provide schools with internet hot spots that could be lent to students.
…
     Commissioner Rosenworcel’s access plan focuses on expanding the federal program known as E-Rate, which helps qualifying schools, school systems and libraries acquire broadband at up to a 90 percent discount. E-Rate program funding is based on demand, up to an annual F.C.C.-established cap of $4.15 billion. It would be a simple matter for the commission to extend the program so that schools can buy hot spots that are then distributed to needy students.
     But given the dire need in poor and rural communities, it would also be right to leverage E-Rate — or something like it — to bring permanent broadband into homes for millions of internet-deprived schoolchildren and subsistence workers.

COMMENT

     Schools and libraries are trying to compensate for a digital divide that means some people have fast Internet access and some don't.  They aren't getting much support, possibly because they seem to be a stopgap when the real goal is to get everyone fast internet access from home.  

     Internet would help people get connected since smartphones seem ubiquitous.  However,  the barrier isn't just the Internet connection-- it's also having a device to do homework on, and maybe a printer.  At my house three people share one laptop.  We don't own a printer because we used to be able to go to the library when we needed to print.  Electronic devices become obsolete very, very quickly.  An additional burden on people too poor for Internet is, how will they continue to upgrade their devices?   The global trend seems to be that the ubiquitous computer is a smartphone.  Will poor students end up trying to write term papers on their phones?