Education technology

Millions of children are encountering all sorts of inconveniences that come with digital instruction during the coronavirus pandemic. But many students are facing a more basic challenge: They don’t have computers and can’t attend classes held online. A surge in worldwide demand by educators for low-cost laptops and Chromebooks — up to 41 percent higher than last year — has created monthslong shipment delays and pitted desperate schools against one another.

Trapped between the financial hardships of the pandemic and the technological hurdles of online learning, the millions of low-income college students across America face mounting obstacles in their quests for higher education.

The United States Department of Agriculture is investing $72 million in grants to help rural residents gain access to health care and educational opportunities. These investments will benefit more than 12 million rural residents. USDA is funding 116 projects through the Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grant program.

Hundreds of school-age children in suburban Cook County (IL)  public housing will get free laptops paid for by federal coronavirus stimulus money starting Oct 7, as part of an ongoing effort to ensure digital access after the COVID-19 pandemic upended in-person learning. About $270,000 of CARES Act money allocated to the Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC) will be used to purchase laptops for 900 students who live in the public housing complexes to keep and otherwise would struggle to complete remote learning.

Melissa Lawson does whatever she can to ensure her children have a great education. The single mom of three juggles working as a licensed cosmetologist, a Zumba instructor and a school’s lunch and recess monitor while ensuring she has the money to keep her children at Sister Thea Bowman Catholic School and Gibault Catholic High School. But now that Lawson’s children are remote learning this school year, she’s had to double her efforts because she can’t afford internet service in her home. She leaves her phone with her kids while she goes to work so they can use her hotspot for school.

A $100 million program to increase internet usage among low-income Alabama families during the pandemic has gone mostly unused, and the state is sending 300,000 more vouchers in a search for additional takers. While 75,000 students have gained internet access so far through the program, which seeks to make it easier for students to get online for school, around 450,000 students qualify statewide, said Mike Presley, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. The second round of vouchers is being sent by a state contractor to increase participation.

Gov Roy Cooper (R-NC) announced nearly $40 million in funding for NC Student Connect, a new partnership created to address internet connectivity gaps that are a barrier to remote learning for many North Carolina students. When school resumed in August, superintendents estimated that at least 100,000 students still lacked a reliable internet connection at home. NC Student Connect investment includes:

NECA is introducing two temporary discount programs to help rural phone and internet providers recognize the needs of students in low-income households for broadband services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The filing, effective Oct 1, will allow carriers to facilitate prolonged at-home student learning by helping low-income households access much needed higher bandwidths or those without broadband access to acquire it. The programs will allow companies to offer:

A network of community partners working to completely bridge the digital divide for Hamilton County (TN) students came together to thank state leaders for dedicating more than $3 million in Tennessee Community CARES funding toward the effort to help students during the pandemic. The new funding helps advance several carefully coordinated initiatives by more than a dozen public-private partners. Hamilton County Schools serves as the hub for reaching the goal of providing all students with internet access - along with the devices needed to learn online.

Saying the COVID-19 pandemic can't be allowed to create an "irreversible" learning gap for students without access to the internet, Cox is teaming up with Common Sense Media to try and do something about it. Cox is pledging $60 million over the next year to help close the digital learning divide. Cox will also extend its offer to new Connect2Compete customers. If they sign up by year's end, they will get two months free, followed by $9.95 per month internet. Cox's outdoor WiFi hotspots will also remain open to all comers.