The California Department of Education (CDE) Closing the Digital Divide Task Force, which met virtually Tuesday on Facebook Live, will be getting an ancillary group to offer private sector members a better chance at achieving real digital equity, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said near the end of the meeting. Among the takeaways:
• The plan to convene a smaller group emerged after comments on the disparity in access to devices and Wi-Fi in rural and low-income areas. State Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, pointed out that “no less than dozens” of projects to improve Internet access have been proposed in rural California – and suggested Internet service providers (ISPs) and others look again at some of those projects that have failed to advance for lack of funding or other reasons. CDE Senior Policy Adviser Mary Nicely said she asked 13 rural and small county school district superintendents, on a call Tuesday, to let her know about their projects, indicating “we’d love to run some pilot projects” to address connectivity.
Assemblymember Autumn Burke, D-Inglewood, told those assembled that members need to get things done and can’t keep having “this circular conversation.” She called for ISPs to negotiate with partners and connections “to get to the last mile and make this happen,” adding, “if we can’t come up with a solution for both connectivity and devices, at the end of the day, a heavy hand is going to fall on you guys. And I don’t actually want that.” Susan Santana, AT&T vice president for California legislative affairs, suggested a pared-down format and said: “It’s going to be very difficult to negotiate items that involve commercial sensitivity, competitiveness, on a Facebook Live format or even on a Zoom format.” Thurmond, the group’s co-chair, said an ad hoc committee will be scheduled to address Burke’s ideas – convening ISPs to drill down on securing discounted devices and plans for students.
• Thurmond announced monetary contributions from two technology companies to buy devices for students. Apple contributed $50 million, which will largely support the needs of Los Angeles Unified School District students, including the purchase of Google Chromebooks. VIPKid, a global ed tech company with U.S. headquarters in San Francisco, has donated $50,000 for equipment. The state superintendent also welcomed Salesforce to the task force, noting the company’s contributions of roughly $80 million to San Francisco and Oakland unified school districts to support computer science and other initiatives.
• Cox Communications Inc., which has San Diego Unified as the largest school district in its footprint, has seen a 714 percent increase in signups for its Connect2Compete program, in an April 2019 to April 2020 comparison. The program offers low-income customers who sign up through May 15 free service through July 15 and charges of $9.95 per month thereafter. The company is also doing more outreach to roughly 7,800 households that don’t have Internet but are eligible for the offer, its vice president for government and public affairs said.
• T-Mobile, which has completed its merger with Sprint, will work with the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) “to identify, for prioritization, 10 different rural areas that will have 5G service and 10 county fairgrounds” that will have it, also in rural areas, its director of state government affairs said.
