KATY MURPHY - California families sue state over distance learning inequities - POLITICO

California families sue state over distance learning inequities

California families sue state over distance learning inequities

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Seven families took California to court Monday, accusing the state of failing to ensure "basic educational equality" during a prolonged period of remote learning brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The plaintiffs say the state isn't providing the equipment, training and support that low-income families desperately need and that it has left it up to districts and teachers to navigate the challenges on their own, providing scant guidance or oversight. Meanwhile, they say, families have been forced to pay for basic school supplies or make do without a computer for each child or reliable internet access.

“Because of the State’s inadequate response, parents and grandparents have had to become tutors, counselors, childminders, and computer technicians, and they have had to find a way to pay for what are now basic school supplies — laptop/tablets, paper, printing, and internet access,” the lawsuit says, adding that the state has "offered families no training, support, or opportunity to provide input into plans for remote learning, the eventual return to in-person instruction, or the delivery of compensatory education.”

The Alameda Superior Court filing comes as most public schools in the state have yet to return to classrooms nearly nine months after closing campuses when the pandemic struck. The challenges of distance learning are exacerbating the existing inequalities in the public education system, the suit said, causing many to miss lessons and fall behind their classmates whose families have the means to overcome such barriers. In particular, the suit says, Black and Latino students CONTINUE READING: California families sue state over distance learning inequities

CURMUDGUCATION: Internet Data Caps Are Coming

CURMUDGUCATION: Internet Data Caps Are Coming

Internet Data Caps Are Coming

If you are a Comcast customer in the Northeast US, changes are coming. 

2021 will bring caps for home internet customers in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and DC, as well as selected slices of North Carolina and Ohio.

There are reasons not to freak out. 

First, the cap is at 1.2 TB, which is a huge amount of data. Comcast says it's good for 21,600 hours of streaming music, 500 hours of streaming HD shows, 34,000 hours of online gaming, or 3,500 hours of video chatting. 

Second, for other parts of the country, this is not new. Comcast started capping accounts in other parts of the US way back in 2016. 

So, we're probably not looking at any sort of major issue right now.

However, as we contemplate the probable increased interest in internet-based schooling, it's a good time to remember that internet access is currently not free, not infinite, and not universal. 

If the Biden administration wants a goof internet policy project to tackle, let's look at pandemic schooling as a clear sign--again--that internet access should be a public utility, like water and electricity. It's way past time.

CURMUDGUCATION: Internet Data Caps Are Coming

How Biden’s FCC could fix America’s internet - Vox

How Biden’s FCC could fix America’s internet - Vox

How Biden’s FCC could fix America’s internet

The FCC can bring back net neutrality and help Americans stay connected during the pandemic — if everything goes its way now.

When Joe Biden is inaugurated as president on January 20, he stands to oversee a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that could do remarkable things. Among other things, the new FCC could bridge the digital divide, ensuring all Americans have access to the internet. But even though Biden’s victory is assured, the future of the FCC hangs in the balance.

The Trump administration’s FCC has had a particular agenda. Under the leadership of Chairman Ajit Pai, the agency has pushed to deregulate the industries under its purview and, in turn, to create a business-friendly environment with few rules, little accountability, and minimal oversight for some of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world. In the months and years to come, the FCC is likely to reverse some of those policies, especially Pai’s most controversial decision: repealing net neutrality, a policy that required internet service providers to treat all types of internet traffic the same. But getting broadband internet in as many homes as possible during the pandemic is many Democrats’ most urgent goal, and one they feel the Trump administration failed to accomplish.

“Because the Trump FCC failed to meaningfully address the digital divide, tens of millions of Americans still lack high-speed internet,” Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) told Recode. “This worsens the impacts of the pandemic, and the Biden administration has to take this head-on.”

She added: “Every person in our country must have high-speed internet. Period. We’ve failed for too long to expand access to rural and tribal areas, and too many urban communities can’t afford broadband.”

The Biden administration’s FCC can and likely will aid this effort by making the internet CONTINUE READING: How Biden’s FCC could fix America’s internet - Vox

Remote Learning Isn’t the Only Problem With School - The Atlantic

Remote Learning Isn’t the Only Problem With School - The Atlantic

School Wasn’t So Great Before COVID, Either

Yes, remote schooling has been a misery—but it’s offering a rare chance to rethink early education entirely.

The litany of tragedies and inconveniences visited upon Americans by COVID-19 is long, but one of the more pronounced sources of misery for parents has been pandemic schooling. The logistical gymnastics necessary to balance work and school when all the crucial resources—time, physical space, internet bandwidth, emotional reserves—are limited have pushed many to the point of despair.

Pandemic school is clearly not working well, especially for younger children—and it’s all but impossible for the 20 percent of American students who lack access to the technology needed for remote learning. But what parents are coming to understand about their kids’ education—glimpsed through Zoom windows and “asynchronous” classwork—is that school was not always working so great before COVID-19 either. Like a tsunami that pulls away from the coast, leaving an exposed stretch of land, the pandemic has revealed long-standing inattention to children’s developmental needs—needs as basic as exercise, outdoor time, conversation, play, even sleep. All of the challenges of educating young children that we have minimized for years have suddenly appeared like flotsam on a beach at low tide, reeking and impossible to ignore. Parents are not only seeing how flawed and glitch-riddled remote teaching is—they’re discovering that many of the problems of remote schooling are merely exacerbations of problems with in-person schooling.

Emily Gould: Remote learning is a bad joke

It’s remarkable how little schools have changed over time; most public elementary schools are stuck with a model that hasn’t evolved to reflect advances in cognitive science and our understanding of human development. When I walked into my 10-year-old son’s fourth-grade classroom a year ago, it looked almost exactly like my now-28-year-old son’s classroom in 2001, which in turn looked strikingly like my own fourth-grade classroom in 1972. They all had the same configuration of desks, cubbies, and rigidly grade-specific accoutrements. The school schedule also remains much the same: 35 hours of weekly instructional time for about 180 days. The same homework, too, despite the growing wealth of evidence suggesting that homework for elementary-school children (aside from nightly reading) offers minimal or no benefits. Elementary education also values relatively superficial learning that’s too focused on achieving mastery of shallow (but test-friendly) skills unmoored from real content knowledge or critical thinking. School hours are marked by disruptions and noise as students shift, mostly en masse and in age-stratified groups, from one strictly demarcated topic or task to another. Many educators and child-development experts believe that some of the still-standard features of pre‑K and elementary education—age and ability cohorts, short classroom periods, confinement mostly indoors—are not working for many children. And much of what has changed—less face time with teachers, assignments on iPads or computers, a narrowed curriculum—has arguably made things worse.

As distance learning has (literally) brought home these realities about how we educate young children, an opportunity to do things better presents itself—not just for the CONTINUE READING: Remote Learning Isn’t the Only Problem With School - The Atlantic

Mitchell Robinson: So, Now What? Let's Focus on Public Education and Internet Access | Eclectablog

So, Now What? Let's Focus on Public Education and Internet Access | Eclectablog

So, Now What? Let’s Focus on Public Education and Internet Access

In the aftermath of the most consequential election in our lifetimes, I thought I’d take this opportunity to offer some free advice for state Democratic parties interested in attracting even more new voters and turning more red state legislatures blue:

Let’s put a lot more focus on two issues that are critically important to building a stronger, more informed voter base, and have the potential to excite and unite both rural and urban communities…

1. Better, more affordable access to broadband internet service

In a digital age, access to fast, secure internet service is not only a basic human need–akin to utilities like electricity, water, and gas/oil–but it’s a requirement for candidates building a digital campaign infrastructure. Not being able to reliably connect to persons in remote areas of your state, or to those who live in urban areas plagued by internet deserts, severely hampers the ability to convey a candidate’s or party’s message, policy beliefs, or positions on issues. It also leaves persons without reliable internet access to the mercies of our information sources like Fox News or the Detroit News–meaning that they are less informed than someone with no media access at all.

2. Improve support for public education, including community colleges and state universities

One of the single largest predictors of voting patterns is the level of education among a group of potential voters. In general, the more educated a person is, the more likely that person is to vote, and to vote for Democratic candidates. Areas and states with a lower percentage of college-educated voters tend to vote Republican, and more educated areas tend to vote for Democrats. It CONTINUE READING: So, Now What? Let's Focus on Public Education and Internet Access | Eclectablog

CURMUDGUCATION: Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility?

CURMUDGUCATION: Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility?

Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility?

School has opened across the country, but in many districts that means class via internet—if those students are among those fortunate enough to have access to fast, large-capacity internet connections.

How many aren’t connected? The answer is that nobody’s exactly sure. One study says that 33 million citizens live without the net. The FCC says that 19 million Americans lack access to broadband at threshold speeds; they also say that 99.99% of the US population has access to some kind of internet. None of the surveys really capture the picture on the ground. Here’s a house that has a good internet connect—except when it rains. Here’s a home where the connection is good—unless five people have to connect their devices at the same time.


So as schools shift to online education, we have more tales of students sitting in parking lots to grab the wi-fi. Schools (and other sponsors) invest in hot spots, even deploying hot spot school buses. But a hot spot device only works in places where there’s a signal available. In my mostly-rural county, there are many places where neither the internet nor wireless phone signals reliably reach.

We are well past the point of pretending that some sort of market solution will bring the US close to 100% real connectivity. There are some corners of the country where it simply does not pay to build and maintain the infrastructure or provide the internet service itself. Getting service to all Americans is a huge challenge, but we’ve met similar challenges before when it came to telephone and electric service. If we can agree that an internet connection is as much a necessity of modern CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility?

John Thompson Reviews “School’s Out” About Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson Reviews “School’s Out” About Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson Reviews “School’s Out” About Pandemic

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, reviews Alec MacGillis’ “School’s Out,” a book about the response of schools and teachers to the pandemic. My takeaway: It’s tough to write a book about a pandemic when it’s not over.

When I first read Alec MacGillis’ School’s Out, I worried that he reached conclusions that were too optimistic, but it made me hopeful. After all, it was a co-production by ProPublica and New Yorker, and MacGillis had listened to numerous top public health experts. Upon rereading, and following his links, I’ve reached a more discouraging appraisal. The published research he cites actually makes the case for more caution, and against MacGillis’ implicit call to reopen schools more quickly for in-person instruction.   

School’s Out touched all bases in reviewing recent research, but I’m afraid MacGillis didn’t focus enough on the experience of educators. In fact, after discussing recent research with a Baltimore teacher who he respected, he was surprised that she still opposed the reopening for in-person classes. To his credit, MacGillis presented her side of the story but he didn’t seem to understand why school environments would “snowball” the transmission effects. 

At first, MacGillis did an excellent job of personalizing the CONTINUE READING: John Thompson Reviews “School’s Out” About Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in 2020 America - The New York Times

What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in 2020 America - The New York Times

What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in 2020 America

Teachers find themselves at the heart of the national crisis — responsible not just for children’s education and well-being, but also for essential child care as parents struggle to get back to work.

“It seems very poor policy to pay a man 20 or 22 dollars a month for teaching children the ABC’s when a female could do the work more successfully at one third of the price.”

— A school committee in Littleton, Mass., debating how to source teachers for its classrooms in 1849

In Her Words is available as a newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

More than 150 years ago, Massachusetts lawmakers came up with a radical idea: All young people should be educated. The commonwealth passed the country’s first law requiring that children go to school, then was left wondering where to find the teachers it needed to educate all those children.

A school committee in Littleton, Mass., came up with a simple solution. “God seems to have made woman peculiarly suited to guide and develop the infant mind,” the committee wrote, in 1849. Why pay men $20 a month when “a female could do the work more successfully at one third of the price.”

Not only did women appear uniquely fitted to the work of teaching; they also didn’t have competing professional opportunities that would drive wages up — or so the logic went. “The argument was, ‘Look, women will learn to be better mothers by practicing on other people’s children,’” said Richard Ingersoll, a sociologist at University of Pennsylvania. “Proponents made the case it was a win-win.”

As other states followed Massachusetts’s lead, and public schools opened across the country, they filled with female teachers. By the late 1880s, women made up 63 percent of the country’s teachers. The profession has remained female dominated ever since.

In 2017, women comprised more than three-quarters of public-school teachers, in a profession that remains stubbornly underpaid and undervalued.

In 2018, the starting salary for a public-school teacher averaged $38,000. In more than 1,000 districts, even the highest paid public-school teachers with advanced degrees and decades of experience earn less than $50,000. A 2010 report from McKinsey looked at the state of teaching in America compared with other developed CONTINUE READING: What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in 2020 America - The New York Times

Virtual Learning Means Unequal Learning | The Pew Charitable Trusts

Virtual Learning Means Unequal Learning | The Pew Charitable Trusts

Virtual Learning Means Unequal Learning

Read Stateline coverage of the latest state action on coronavirus.

Karen Reyes, who teaches deaf and hard-of-hearing children in Austin, Texas, worries about her first-grade pupils who will be learning online this fall. She’s concerned that virtual learning is harder for younger, special needs children, especially those who may not have as much support at home as students in more affluent communities.

“It has brought out a lot of the inequities in our district, especially in special education,” Reyes said of the distance learning program.

In her school, 93% of the students are considered economically disadvantaged, according to a city estimate.

“Either one or both of the parents have to work,” said Reyes, 31, who also is a leader in the local American Federation of Teachers chapter, in a phone interview. “That makes it even harder because small children need adults with them when they are learning.”

By contrast, in affluent Howard County, Maryland, in the outer Washington, D.C., suburbs, which is also going to virtual classes in the fall, many parents are scrambling to line up tutors to help their kids. Families also are banding together to form “pods” of children, with tutors whose rates can range from $70 an hour for tutoring one child to $29 an hour each for a pod of four.

Delaney Fox, who runs a small, independent tutoring and babysitting service in Howard County, said her phone is ringing constantly with potential clients.

“The demand?” she said. “It’s mass hysteria. We were getting calls during the Board of Ed meeting [when the remote learning policy was being set]. People wanted to be first on the list when it seemed like the board was voting that way. I’m trying to help as many people as I can.”

The contrasting examples illustrate what many educators and experts fear — that inequities in local school systems because of a lack of funding, technology or parental involvement will CONTINUE READING: Virtual Learning Means Unequal Learning | The Pew Charitable Trust

Resources Identified to Support Distance Learning + Virtual Classroom Lesson on Asian American Studies - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

Resources Identified to Support Distance Learning - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Digital Divide Task Force Identify Resources, Partnerships Available to Support Successful Distance Learning in the Fall

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and leaders serving on the Closing the Digital Divide Task Force identified new resources and partnerships today to support California schools preparing for distance learning this fall. The task force, co-chaired by Senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino), has been working since April to help equip all California students with computing devices and connectivity as schools prepare for the new academic year.

Among the resources identified Thursday include more than $5 billion available in the state budget to school districts to acquire devices, strengthen distance learning and address learning gaps. Task Force members also learned more about the progress of a multi-million dollar initiative spearheaded by Intel Corp. to support online learning.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic forces more school districts to resume virtual learning in the fall, this work grows increasingly urgent. But it is not insurmountable: Together, I believe we have the opportunity to rapidly build on the progress we already have made to date to close the digital divide,” Thurmond said. “Hundreds of thousands of students still lack the basic tools to connect to their learning. This is unacceptable, and now is the time to accelerate our efforts so that no student is left behind.”

The California Department of Education (CDE) estimates more than 700,000 students still lack computing devices and another 300,000 lack hotspots to connect to the internet. Subsequently, Thurmond has launched a campaign asking more than 100 of California’s top private industry partners, businesses, and donors to contribute to a $500 million initiative that would provide the technological resources to these students.

Senator Leyva agreed with Thurmond on the urgency of meeting this need. “As the vast majority of California students will start the upcoming school year learning remotely, it’s important that we strengthen distance learning and address the lack of access and connectivity for students across the state,” she said. “It is critical that we minimize learning loss and expand ongoing opportunities for the continued success and achievement of all students.”

Ben Chida, chief deputy cabinet secretary for Governor Gavin Newsom, provided an update on Learning Loss Mitigation Funds authorized by the 2020–21 state budget, which allocates $5.3 billion to local educational agencies to support transitional kindergarten through twelfth grade academic achievement, mitigate learning gaps exacerbated by COVID-19 school campus closures, and purchase computing and connectivity devices. School districts are now able to apply for these funds.

Intel provided an additional example of ways the private sector can partner on solutions. During the task force hearing, Intel representatives Gregg Descheemaeker and Darrell Stewart presented an update on the Intel Pandemic Response Technology Initiative, which supports education-focused nonprofit organizations and business partners to provide students without access to technology with devices and online learning resources. By partnering with public school districts, the initiative will enable PC donations, online virtual resources, study-at-home guides, and device connectivity assistance.

State Superintendent Thurmond’s Digital Divide Task Force and CDE have played a key role in facilitating the shipment of more than 73,000 computing devices to hundreds of school districts statewide. These devices were provided by donations to the Bridging the Digital Divide Fund by philanthropy, companies, and individuals through the fund’s GoFundMe page. Among the recipients are more than 16,000 homeless students and another 2,000 students in the foster system.

Additionally, the task force has worked with districts and the California Public Utilities Commission to subsidize nearly 87,000 hotspots for students in 368 school districts. Additionally, to date, 100,000 hotspots have been delivered to more than 200 school districts across the state thanks to T-Mobile and Google donations.

After multiple task force hearings, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are now also making meaningful commitments. ISPs have opened up their hotspots for public access and now have dedicated staff who can more quickly resolve problems with accessing low-income services. The task force and CDE have directly assisted ISPs in moving forward with internet infrastructure projects by connecting them to the new Broadband Coordinator at Caltrans. And with more barriers removed for low-income households, students in many parts of the state now have access to reduced-cost Wi-Fi where available.

An archived broadcast of today’s task force hearing and past hearings can be watched on the California Department of Education (CDE) Facebook page.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Resources Identified to Support Distance Learning - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

Virtual Classroom Lesson on Asian American Studies

Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr20/yr20rel60.asp

SACRAMENTO—Students who gathered for a virtual classroom lesson on Asian American Studies on Tuesday, hosted by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, learned about Fred Korematsu’s fight against imprisonment during World War II. Korematsu’s 40-year battle in the Supreme Court would in part lead to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which included a formal apology as well as reparations to Japanese Americans imprisoned during the war.

“Fred Korematsu’s story is one that should empower all of us stand up for ourselves and for what’s right, even if it takes years or decades for justice,” said Thurmond. “As our nation experiences an urgent movement for racial justice, we’ve heard from students from around the state speaking up that this work begins in the classroom. Today’s virtual classroom was an example of what that can look like.”

The virtual classroom session was hosted by Superintendent Thurmond and featured Dr. Karen Korematsu sharing her father’s personal story as well as her own. Guests included students from throughout California, Assemblymember David Chiu, and Professor Grace Yeh, Ph.D. of California Polytechnic State University at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, who spoke about the importance of Asian American Studies and gave a brief history of Asians and Pacific Islander Americans. An archived broadcast can be found on the California Department of Education (CDE) Facebook page.

As the CDE prepares to submit a revised Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum for public review, this series will help students, educators, and families familiarize themselves with the core areas of ethnic studies, including how different groups have struggled and worked together, as well as key concepts such as equality, justice, race, ethnicity, and indigeneity.

During Tuesday’s webinar, Dr. Karen Korematsu shared her father’s story and overview of the Korematsu Institute, whose mission is to advance racial equity, social justice, and human rights for all. Since her father’s passing in 2005, Karen has carried

on his legacy as a public speaker, educator, and civil rights advocate. She shares her father’s passion for social justice and education and in 2009 established the Fred T. Korematsu Institute.

In a question-and-answer session, students and members from the Asian Pacific Youth Leadership Project and U.S. Senate Youth Program expressed their support for more Asian American and Pacific Islander history to be taught earlier, and in a more relatable, modern way. Students also drew inspiration from realizing the direct connection and intersection between the history and experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other indigenous and people of color in the United States. And before delivering closing remarks, State Superintendent Thurmond offered to provide reading materials on Asian Americans to the first 100 students who reach out to the CDE.

This series of virtual classroom sessions continues with one more event on July 28. Each session focuses on one of four foundational groups of ethnic studies: Africana Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano Latino Studies, and Indigenous Studies. The series features prominent leaders and educators from each discipline to provide a lecture. All events in the series are broadcast on the CDE Facebook page. The remaining event is as follows:

• Tuesday, July 28, 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Indigenous Studies with Assemblymember James C. Ramos, co-founder of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians' Cultural Awareness Program and director of the California Indian Cultural Awareness Conference at California State University, San Bernardino.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction

https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr20/yr20rel60.asp

NYC Educator: More Questions on Hybrid Learning

NYC Educator: More Questions on Hybrid Learning

More Questions on Hybrid Learning

Here's another photo of the hybrid Rav4 I bought from Toyota. It's supposed to run over 500 miles on a tank of gas, but the gas tank will not fill. Toyota says they're working on a fix, but they've been telling me that since September. I'm rapidly losing faith in hybrids, and I'm not well-disposed toward trying a new one at this juncture.

I just had a column in the Daily News about how proposed hybrid learning is impractical and undesirable. My vision was giving a lesson while standing in one place. I figured some students would see me live while most would watch remotely. Even that, though, is hard to figure out.

In our sorely overcrowded school, for example, students would only come in once every five days. When we did our walkthrough yesterday, our principal had set up a model room with ten chairs. The idea would be the room could accommodate nine students and one paraprofessional at a time. Okay. Assuming every student and adult practiced social distancing and wore masks all the time, it was something we might be able to accomplish.

The think is, though, with five groups, I'd only see an average of seven students. That's not necessarily an issue in itself. Were I on camera, I'd still have a full class. But how exactly would we interact? All the students in the classroom would need devices to interact with the students who weren't in the room. I couldn't fairly focus on only those present, and I'd argue, in fact, that seven might be a too small a class size anyway. You need to have a mix of students, and in a group that small I could easily draw seven painfully shy kids who would might follow each other's examples.

But let's say we did find a way for the entire class to communicate. It's possible that we could direct the stream to the screens we have in front of most of our classrooms. That way, the students attending the class could easily see those not attending, and we could interact. Of course, to do that, the students in the actual classroom would need to have their own devices so that those learning remotely could see them as well. Once we get to this point, I have to ask once more--What is the actual point of my students and CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: More Questions on Hybrid Learning

Update on Efforts to Expand Internet Access - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

Update on Efforts to Expand Internet Access - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Digital Divide Task Force Receive Update on Multiple Efforts to Expand Internet Access for All

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and leaders serving on the Closing the Digital Divide Task Force received a progress report Friday on multiple ongoing efforts and commitments made to date to expand services for the state’s most vulnerable students and families

During Friday’s hearing, the task force, co-chaired by Senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino), heard presentations from internet service providers including Charter, Comcast, Cox Communications, Frontier Communications, T-Mobile, and Verizon on their commitments to expand free and discounted services to more California students, particularly those living in poverty and rural households.

An archived broadcast of Friday’s task force hearing can be found on the California Department of Education (CDE) Facebook page.

“We believe in giving credit where credit is due, and we’re grateful that many companies have stepped up and answered the call to work with us to help our students access devices and internet,” said Thurmond. “Though we are making progress, we still have a lot of work ahead in order to ensure all our students are connected and able to learn. Affordable computing devices and internet are not only necessary for distance learning but also for lifelong success.”

“Since the task force started working in mid-April on the digital divide issues facing many California students, we have strengthened our cross-sector partnerships that prioritize closing the ongoing technology gaps in our state, “ said Leyva.

“It’s critical that we continue to work hard to meet the technological needs of students, particularly now that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that distance learning is critical during times of crisis to ensure continued student growth and achievement. We must capitalize on the current momentum to make lasting change for students and communities that urgently need reliable digital access.”

In the months since school campuses across the state closed and educators and students shifted to distance learning, the California Department of Education (CDE) has helped facilitate the shipment of 38,591 tech devices and 64,000 mobile hotspots to schools and districts throughout California. The hotspots and devices, which include laptops and tablets donated by Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, will be delivered to 269 districts, schools, districts, and county offices.

In addition to the devices, the CDE will be granting $5 million to local educational agencies to purchase 20,000 more devices or hotspots. The funds are from the California Public Utilities Commission’s California Advanced Services Fund.

Still, staggering need persists and only grows more urgent as schools plan to resume learning this fall. Although tens of thousands of devices and hotspots have been shipped to schools across California, CDE estimates more than 700,000 computing devices and more than 300,000 hotspots are still necessary to meet students’ needs moving forward. It will cost at least $500 million to meet the technology needs of all students, not counting the costs associated with expanding broadband infrastructure.

California students received a substantial boost earlier this week: an anonymous pledge of $4.7 million to procure more computing devices and hotspots. The commitment was facilitated by the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation (CDE Foundation), the private non-profit partner of the CDE since 2011, through the California Bridging the Digital Divide Fund. The fund is a joint effort of the Governor’s Office, State Board of Education, CDE, and CDE Foundation. Individual contributions may be made on the CBDD Fund web page, and corporate and institutional donors may contact Mary Nicely at mnicely@cde.ca.gov.

Friday’s task force hearing included a presentation from the California Public Utilities Commission on the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming multibillion dollar Rural Digital Opportunity Fund reverse auction, an initiative to bring high speed fixed broadband service to rural homes and small businesses that lack it. As much as $2.5 billion could be available to California in this effort, and State Superintendent Thurmond asked internet service providers present at Friday’s hearing to provide an update on whether their companies will be applying for these funds. 

            Task Force members also heard an update from Caltrans on an initiative to expand broadband infrastructure along state highway right of ways.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Update on Efforts to Expand Internet Access - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)