Digital Equity

Plus, Dayton, Ohio, rolls out a police transparency portal for public info; Howard County, Md., announces a new robust digital equity initiative; and a Florida sheriff’s office deploys tech to find wandering seniors.

Sunnyside School District is partnering with Cox Communications to expand high-speed Internet services to more than 1,000 households in the neighborhood located about 2 miles south of the Tucson airport.

As many as 42 million Americans, most of them in rural or remote areas, have no broadband available, and roughly three times that number can’t afford to hook into the lines running down their streets.

Plus, Virginia launches a statewide public health equity dashboard, data from Yelp shows the impact of car-free streets in communities, Alabama launches new centralized COVID-19 response app, and more.

Instead of setting uniform class schedules under the assumption that all students will learn at the same pace and in the same way, schools might serve kids better by making time the variable and learning the constant.

After a lawsuit alleged the state of New Mexico failed to provide necessary devices and connectivity for students to participate in remote learning, a judge has ordered the state to assess the cost and get it done.

The goal is to provide state and local governments options in financing broadband projects, including the issuance of tax-exempt bonds, public-private partnerships, federal tax credits and bond payment assistance.

Tom Wheeler, former chair of the Federal Communications Commission, explains the public and private interests that will impact how Vice President Kamala Harris brokers a federal broadband infrastructure deal.

School officials have delayed a plan to bring broadband to students in underserved parts of the district, planning to build towers that provide public Wi-Fi access to neighborhoods where students lack service at home.

Wireless Internet hot spots have been activated along Route 40, the historic National Highway that passes through Fayette County, Pa., as more remote parts of Pennsylvania find their own solutions to getting online.

Digital equity advocates, state broadband offices and local government staffers are encouraged by the president’s emphasis on their work, but what do they need at the federal level to fully solve this challenge?

West Virginia Department of Economic Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael unveiled a four-prong approach to spending $138 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to expand broadband Internet in the state.

Internet access touches every aspect of day-to-day life, from applying for jobs or to schools and seeking medical information to doing the required work for school or a career, one professor says.

Plus, an internal federal government innovation program picks 22 ideas to receive phased support funding, a new data warehouse aims to consolidate California’s statewide data on homelessness, and more.

The Ohio House on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to send Gov. Mike DeWine a bill to immediately spend $20 million to expand access to broadband Internet in rural and other underserved areas.

Residents will be eligible to receive federal subsidies for Internet and devices beginning May 12 under a program aimed at helping households struggling to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Federal Communications Commission will start accepting applications on May 12 for its program to help low-income families pay for access to high-speed Internet service during the coronavirus pandemic.

The eighth annual Smart Cities Connect Conference & Expo opened with a panel discussion around digital equity and the need for all communities to expand access to broadband as they emerge from the COVID-19 crisis.