Coronavirus quarantines could rob poor, rural students of access to education
Nearly 12 million children live in homes lacking a broadband connection.
If the coronavirus forces schools to shut down for long stretches of time, millions of students will struggle to keep up because they don’t have broadband to do schoolwork at home.
What’s known as “the homework gap” could be devastating for students who can't easily use the internet — especially in poor urban areas and rural districts where families don’t have a home laptop or high-speed internet connections. Federal and state officials have long known about the online education gap in America, but spending money to fix the problem wasn’t prioritized. If there are mass school closures, it will be too late.
Nearly 12 million children live in homes lacking a broadband connection, and white residents are more likely to have broadband in their homes than people of color, according to a 2017 report from the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee. In 15 states, the majority of rural residents do not have access to broadband, the report says.
Nevertheless, schools are being advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin planning now for possible interruptions, opening the door to a long-term gap between the haves and have nots in public education. While Congress has various proposals floating around for funding, and some states CONTINUE READING: Coronavirus quarantines could rob poor, rural students of access to education - POLITICO