School Children Without Internet. We Could Fix That.

How can it be that American school children are camping out in school parking lots to get enough connectivity to listen to their lessons. How can it be that 17% of US schoolchildren don’t have connectivity at all? How exactly are they supposed to be learning now that public education has gone remote? In New York City, where 1.1 million kids attend public school, 225,000 are still waiting for devices like laptops or Ipads. But even if they get the devices, and honestly, what is New York waiting for, they may not be able to zoom into their schools. Wouldn’t it make sense to take tax payer money and pay regular people to organize themselves into broadband cooperatives. They could do something concrete that could potentially unleash learning, innovation and entrepreneurship for all Americans A sort of Rural Electrification Act for internet connectivity?

[Peg Tyre wrote  "The Trouble With Boys" and "The Good School;" she is director of strategy at the Edwin Gould Foundation]