Digital Equity

The nonprofit Code.org’s new state-by-state analysis of computer science education has good news and bad news: 2023 saw major progress in making it a requirement, but enrollment is not sufficiently high or equitable.

Save for a two-year period during the Obama administration, the Federal Communications Commission has allowed Internet service providers to manipulate data speeds for decades.

The Oklahoma Broadband Office received official notification from the U.S. Department of the Treasury of the allocation of $167.7 million through the American Rescue Plan Act's Capital Projects Fund for broadband expansion efforts.

Plus, the FCC will vote soon on rules to eliminate digital discrimination, New Orleans wants residents to complete a slow Internet challenge, and more.

Spectrum will soon lay fiber-optic cables in parts of southern and eastern Bexar County that lack high-speed Internet access or broadband infrastructure. The county will spend more than $5 million on the effort.

Verizon has reached out to Houston Independent School District to extend the terms of the Digital Promise program by which students and teachers get free devices and data plans, but the district has not responded.

The county has accepted a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to expand broadband access. The grant will help make broadband available to 2,986 unserved or underserved households.

The Appalachian Regional Commission's Partnerships for Opportunity, Workforce and Economic Revitalization program awarded the grant to Washington County as part of an effort to get some 10,000 unserved or poorly served households online.

U.S. regulators voted to reinstate rules aimed at ensuring that everything on the Internet is equally accessible — a principle known as net neutrality that has stoked debate across industries for more than two decades.

More than 2,200 homes and businesses in Armstrong County are now eligible for high-speed fiber Internet through a $2 billion multiyear, multistate investment by Internet service provider Kinetic.

Plus, Missouri is launching a new advisory council related to digital equity; Kansas is collecting more input on its broadband plans; Maryland is dedicating more money to getting people connected; and more.

Rather than letting learners cope with the lifelong struggles associated with dyslexia, one technology company is using an artificial intelligence-enabled tool that corrects problems and sets them on a course toward proficiency.

Students are playing a key role in tweaking a mobile app that offers 24/7 advice, reassurances, and links to activities or informational videos for teens, and it's relieving some overworked school counselors.

The Boys & Girls Club of Cheyenne and After School for Kids recently got donations of cash from AT&T to support digital literacy in rural communities, as well as 50 computers to distribute to families in need.

The city issued a request for qualifications for vendors to provide a fiber-optic network and broadband Internet service with upload and download speeds of at least 1 gigabit per second within two years of a signed contract.

The project includes 134 miles of line construction, funded through a $23.5 million grant from the Washington State Broadband Office and an additional $2.35 million matching funds from ISP ToledoTel.

The Monongalia County Commission has issued a request for proposals seeking partners to get high-speed Internet to all corners of the county. An unserved area in the western part of the county has been identified as an area of pressing need.

An early warning dashboard will be available to Indiana's K-12 districts before the 2024-2025 academic year to help identify students who are at risk of not graduating on time due to chronic absenteeism and other issues.