Digital divide suddenly wider

In San Antonio, schools, under a state directive, now must provide “remote instruction” and many will start March 30. Although several districts are offering curbside pickup of paper packets, lessons largely will be given online — further exacerbating the digital divide in a city with one of the nation’s biggest income gaps. Even in better times, students who don’t have ready access to computers and the internet face greater challenges completing homework and college applications. But now that teachers are replacing their physical classrooms with virtual ones and a free public education increasingly involves a home computer and a high-speed internet connection, low-income children are on deteriorating ground. Almost a quarter of Bexar County households do not have desktop or laptop computers and about 21 percent don’t have broadband internet, 2017 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show.