Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

SUN EDITORIAL:

As technology sprints ahead, low-income students left behind

For years, thousands of students in the Clark County School District have faced a disadvantage in their learning due to a circumstance beyond their control. They’re on the wrong end of what’s known in education circles as the digital divide.

That term describes the inequity between households where children have access to computers and good internet connections, and those without. Studies have confirmed the obvious effect of the disparity: Students who can’t do their homework on a computer score worse than their peers in standardized math, reading and science tests.

Now, the COVID-19 crisis has exposed the scope of the problem in Southern Nevada. When schools closed, the district lost the ability to educate tens of thousands of children without the means to learn through online instruction.

As reported last week, the district had been unable to reach about 67,000 students during the first week of closures, or about 1 in 5 pupils in the district.

No doubt, some of those students have computers and internet connectivity but are simply ignoring their teachers’ attempts to contact them. Kids will be kids, after all.

But the number of unreachable students roughly corresponds to research conducted this month by the Guinn Center, which estimated that about 64,000 students in the district didn’t have computer access. That number was based on a study of U.S. Census data in which families self-reported information about technology in their households.

Those children, who tend to come from communities of color and low-income families, are now being left behind.

This is an essential unfairness that our community must resolve, and not just in the short-term while schools are closed. To level the playing field, we need to help provide students with the tools they need to keep up with their peers in tech-appointed households.

The good news is that CCSD and several community partners have treated the problem as an emergency — which it is — and have rallied to provide Google Chromebooks to students. CCSD announced it would reallocate funds to purchase 46,000 units and put out a call to the community to donate 74,000 more. Working with the Las Vegas-based Public Education Foundation, the district created the CCSD Technology Fund for community contributions. That fund has drawn about $450,000, enough to purchase about 1,500 devices at $300 per unit.

To donate, visit thepef.org, which is welcoming small-dollar contributions while also working with major donors.

The funds also will be used for another significant need that has been underscored by this crisis — training teachers on digital learning strategies so they can deliver effective and engaging online learning to their students. The Public Education Foundation and CCSD will provide professional development for teachers as well in online education.

Meanwhile, local internet service providers have offered free or reduced-cost internet plans to low-income families.

To his credit, CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara had raised awareness about the digital divide before the pandemic struck, including in a June 2019 guest column in the Sun, and had been working to address it as part of the district’s five-year strategic plan.

But as the crisis showed, there’s a great deal of work left to be done.

This is a problem that disproportionately affects low-income families and people of color — a Pew Research Center study of families with school-age kids showed that 23% of Hispanic households and 25% of African-American households did not have internet access, compared with 15% of households overall.

Meanwhile, here in Clark County, 63% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches districtwide, while 90-100% qualify in more than 80 schools.

As a community that values racial and economic equality, Las Vegas must reduce the gap those students face in technology.

Note: This editorial has been revised to clarify information relation to the Guinn Center study.