Coronavirus pandemic shines light on deep digital divide in U.S. amid efforts to narrow it

When schools around the country began to close this spring because of the spread of the coronavirus, millions of students had the resources to transition to online learning — but not in Detroit (MI). Some 90 percent of the 51,000 students in the high-poverty Detroit Public Schools Community District did not have access to Internet services or the technology at home required for online learning. Teachers sent home packets of lessons on paper instead.

A coalition of businesses and philanthropic organizations in the city is working to provide every student, kindergarten through 12th grade, with a tablet computer and high-speed Internet access. The program — called Connected Futures and led by DTE Energy, Skillman Foundation, Quicken Loans, the city of Detroit and the school district — is spending $23 million in what Superintendent Nikolai Vitti hailed as “an unprecedented investment to immediately address an unprecedented crisis.” The Detroit project is only one of many around the country aimed at trying to close the digital divide, which puts millions of students who are already marginalized at even further disadvantage. It is estimated that up to 12 million students — and some of their teachers — don’t have Internet access at home, and many of the 13,000 U.S. school districts don’t have the resources to provide what is needed without outside help.