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I’m going to expose my ignorance here, but in 2020, how many low-income families are there without internet? Also, would it the solve not just be to provide lo
by donw 7y ago
I’m going to expose my ignorance here, but in 2020, how many low-income families are there without internet?
Also, would it the solve not just be to provide loaner 4G access points to those families?
The US is one of the top per-student global spenders on K-12 education, so the money is there.
- jimbokun 7y ago> Also, would it the solve not just be to provide loaner 4G access points to those families? It probably would, but I don't think most school districts planned for a multi-week or multi-month pandemic. So buying access points and Chromebooks, finding all the students who need them, and distributing them, probably won't happen in the short term.
- thescriptkiddie 7y agoIn California, at least, students are eligible for subsidized ($20/month) LTE hotspots. Apparently it is provided by Sprint as part of an agreement they made when they leased spectrum that had previously been set aside for educational use. These could and should been made free for low-income families. https://foundationccc.org/What-We-Do/Student-Success/California-Connects https://foundationccc.org/What-We-Do/Student-Success/Califor...
- RealityVoid 7y agoI'm not from the US, but it sounds like the state could and should leverage this to the maximum.
- suchire 7y agoThese are likely insufficient for video-based schoolwork or materials. That would max out any quota set for these hotspots
- therealx 7y agoTheres no quota on the Sprint grandfathering. Check out the Calyx institute hotspot for an example (and a cool org)
- lucidguppy 7y agoWhen things are cleared up with covid - just go to the library and see all the seniors who have next to nothing, then think - how many of them have a grandchild in their care?
- donw 7y agoHow many do? Do we have data? And what benefits are currently available to them?
- agentdrtran 7y agoQuite a few - CA has over 1.1 million homes without internet access (this means no mobile internet as well): https://connectednation.org/blog/2019/10/09/new-u-s-census-findings-number-of-households-without-internet-access/ https://connectednation.org/blog/2019/10/09/new-u-s-census-f...
- donw 7y agoI’d be interested to see how that breaks down in terms of household sizes, location, etc. Is this a rural problem? Urban? Are those households primarily childless, or with school-aged children?
- irrational 7y agoApparently in my school district it is estimated to be between 20-35% of students.
- pergadad 7y agoMany people have internet, but only on phones. So you could ask them to use the phone or tether a loaned laptop, but this will raise costs and other equity issues.
- beefalo 7y agoI think this has likely become worse in recent history. I expect all of these households have "internet" access through a smartphone, but won't have a home connection to use with school issued chromebooks.
- karatestomp 7y agoIf you don’t have a strong need for it, paying for cellular internet for every phone plus a home connection becomes hard to justify, and the cellular ones are probably the more useful of the two, for most people.
- em-bee 7y agohere in china i get home internet with sim cards for the whole family and a mobile data quota thrown in for free