Erin Mansfield

Even before the pandemic, which largely confined most Americans to their homes for months, communities that lacked reliable high-speed internet began falling behind those that were well-connected.

Since schools shut down in spring, districts have scrambled to distribute laptops and internet so students can engage in schooling from home. But almost a year later, with no end in sight for virtual learning, millions of students still lack reliably fast internet or a working computer — the basic tools to participate in live lessons from home. The digital divide is complicated to solve. The cost of broadband is out of reach for many families.

Corey Shepherd teaches fifth graders in rural Alaska in a school district the size of Indiana. The terrain there is so rural that only airplanes and snowmobiles connect the district’s 11 tiny villages. Shepherd is one of more than 7,000 teachers in her state trying to make the most of teaching her students since the governor closed schools to in-person learning to stop the spread of the coronavirus. One method she isn’t relying on: online learning. “Around half of my students have access to the internet on some device at home,” Shepherd said.

As a broadband connection becomes more integrated into life in the 21st century — from working to studying to keeping in touch with loved ones — rural East Texas continues to lag the rest of the state. Forty percent of people living in 41 East Texas counties did not have broadband in 2016, compared with 11 percent of the population statewide.