One of the major equity issues in digital-age learning programs is what’s referred to as the “Homework Gap”, where students do not have access to the Internet at home, even if they have a device. While this has been a long-standing issue, COVID-19 immediately brought this issue front and center in our collective understanding of educational equity, and now with documented data of the detrimental impacts on students.

Recently, the NC Broadband Office maintains a dashboard on access in NC. While this is one of the more comprehensive looks at this issue, quantifying the broadband gap overall is an incredibly difficult task at the state level. Many surveys ask about “Internet access”, but don’t differentiate between cellular Internet (which may have caps, or may only be usable from a phone) versus traditional home internet. Also, the demographics of parents who are less likely to be able to afford Internet are also the parents who are probably unable to make the time to answer a survey. It’s also hard to differentiate between people who don’t have Internet access because they can’t afford it and those who can but live in rural areas and can’t access it. The FCC keeps data on rural broadband availability. However, these data are at the census tract level, and if a single house in the tract has Internet access, the FCC data assumes the entire tract is able to get high speed Internet. In rural areas, this is untrue as a house along the road may be able to get Internet access but a house set back a few hundred yards may not be able to.

The Broadband Infrastructure Office, in partnership with the Friday Institute and the NC DMV, conducted a survey for all NC households that can be taken by phone, SMS, or online. They have also made a dashboard of the results available.

Addressing the Homework Gap

It’s not a lack of desire to serve areas, but much of the country still lacks Internet. However, many rural areas don’t have the customer base who can afford Internet access and running fiber costs an average of $32,000 per mile. Internet Providers are for-profit companies - they have to be able to recoup their investment costs to serve an area.

While there’s no “silver bullet” to address the homework gap, many organizations and districts have solutions to help:

Affordable Connectivity Program

The Affordable Connectivity Program was created by the Federal government during COVID to help low-income families get connected. Families facing extreme poverty or who receive government assistance are eligible for a $30/monthly discount on Internet access plus a one-time $100 contribution towards the purchase of any device where the family chips in between $10 and $50. This program has ended as Congress chose not to continue the appropriation.

Lifeline Program

Under the Lifeline program through the FCC, consumers can get a discount on their Internet access service. Eligibility for this program typically requires verification of participation in the National School Lunch Program, either directly or through the Community Eligibility provision. Spectrum reduces their price for Internet to $17.99 per month, CenturyLink participates as well (though their pricing on their site is less clear), AT&T offers service for $5-10 per month. While these prices aren’t approachable for everyone (and assume people live in an area with access and consistently have electricity), they can help a portion of the population get Internet access. The ACP and Lifeline work in tandem to provide affordable Internet access in some communities.

1Million Project

The 10Million Project is run by T-Mobile, and provides wireless internet access via a hotspot device or cell phone to students for up to four years while in high school. North Carolina is a target state for the 1Million project, and schools may apply yearly. There are a limited number of devices available, and students must live in a T-Mobile coverage area in order to receive services.

Hotspot Checkouts

Using State Contracts, some districts are purchasing a limited number of hotspots for student checkout. Each hotspot costs about $40/month and districts can purchase from multiple carriers as the need arises. The cost associated with this program prevents it from scaling to what a school would typically need. Kajeet is a network reseller that sells devices customized for schools that include filtering back to schools and other access controls.

Community Hotspots

Some school districts are partnering with community hubs to provide Internet access to students at home. These hubs are not ideal compared to having Internet in the home, but are also extremely useful in providing supervision for students, support resources for families, meals through the Summer Feeding Program, and other programming for families. Some schools are also upcycling old activity buses to provide programming that can travel to communities. Book Buses are one example. There are some inherent equity issues in approaches like this as well as safety issues related for people having to camp out in common locations. Also, camping out in parking lots has inherent problems and may not make the internet accessible.

Bus Wi-Fi

Kajeet offers a solution to connect buses to the Internet with enough wireless capacity to serve a bus full of students. In addition to allowing Internet access to students on their way to and from schools, this solution can provide Internet access in communities as well. Since bus drivers disproportionately live in lower-income neighborhoods, allowing drivers to take their buses home and leaving the wifi running on the bus overnight can cover a small area with Internet access. Many schools adopted this approach during COVID as well.

GREAT Grants

Targeted at ISPs, North Carolina GREAT Grants provide funding for providers to serve hard-to-reach areas in North Carolina. This can offset the significant cost of building out infrastructure for rural areas.

Emerging Solutions

New technologies, such as Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) will allow independent providers to set up small-scale private cellular towers that can cover larger areas than traditional wifi at a lower cost. When realized, a school district could build out a small cellular network originating from each school in the district that could cover large swaths of the district with private cellular data coverage for student use at relatively low cost. SpaceX’s StarLink program will be up and running in North America by late 2020, and can provide cable modem-like speeds anywhere via satellite at a price point similar to traditional wireline Internet services. While SpaceX’s solution won’t provide a solution for families that can’t afford Internet, it will revolutionize access for families with geographical restrictions on their Internet access. Read more about this work from EdNC.

Computers

In schools that don’t send devices home with students, Internet access is only half of the problem - students still need a device to connect to the Internet. Some districts are turning to donations and setting computers up using Neverware or Ubermix. The Kramden Institute, located in Durham, will provide free computers to families in need across North Carolina along with training and technical support. Some districts are purchasing Raspberry Pi computers, which are now powerful enough to use day-to-day as a web browsing device. These devices can plug in to any computer and the all-in cost is typically under $75.