3 million US students don’t have home internet

In what has become known as the homework gap, an estimated 17 percent of US students do not have access to computers at home and 18 percent do not have home access to broadband internet (nearly 3 million students), according to an Associated Press analysis of census data. The consequences can be dire for children in these situations, because students with home internet consistently score higher in reading, math, and science. And the homework gap in many ways mirrors broader educational barriers for poor and minority students. Students without internet at home are more likely to be students of color, from low-income families or in households with lower parental education levels. Janice Flemming-Butler, who has researched barriers to internet access in Hartford’s (CT) largely black north end, said the disadvantage for minority students is an injustice on the same level as “when black people didn’t have books.”