The City of Phoenix has taken initiative to address and bridge the digital divide in Arizona through funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and local efforts.
In July of this year, a Common Sense Media study showed that 335,000 Arizona students didn’t have access to internet. With remote learning being widespread across school districts, this put many students at a disadvantage at the start of the school year.
The digital divide refers to the gap between people that have internet access and those who can’t afford it. Phoenix Community and Economic Development Director Christine Mackay said the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the digital divide in Phoenix even more.
“Having internet in your home was nice to have and it was working up to being a real must-have, but move to the pandemic and now it’s a necessity. Our children are trying to attend school from their homes and they need to login and listen to a teacher lecture,” Mackay said.
Phoenix COVID-19 relief funds allocated $1,300,000 for funding public housing Wi-Fi and $2,000,000 for bridging the digital divide and expansion.
In the public housing funds, $660,000 was allocated toward purchasing a tablet for each family with children between ages five and 18.
“We know that digital learning is so important and we want our students to stay caught up and continue to learn,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a July update. “We heard from our residents that many of them did not have access to the internet at home.”
All 800 tablets have been distributed, according to Phoenix Public Housing Director Cindy Stotler.
“Many parents are grateful that their children have a device to work on school with from home and then the parents are also using it for other things like looking for jobs, or telemedicine,” Stotler said.
Phoenix COVID-19 relief also allocated for 52 new public Wi-Fi facilities, and as of the Sept. 22 update, 43 of these locations have been activated.
Councilwoman Laura Pastor, District 4, said she has pursued a permanent solution for the digital divide, however. While serving as a Phoenix councilmember, an employee of Phoenix College and a board member of the Phoenix Union High School District, she is in the unique position of bringing educational and political leaders together.
Mackay was one of the individuals on this project to form a permanent solution for Phoenix’s digital divide. Together, they have been overseeing tests of new technology that would allow students to access school Wi-Fi at their homes for free.
“We are now at the point where we are testing the equipment as we speak, the tests should be completed by the end of this week and then the next step that we have is taking that equipment and putting it out in the community and testing it in a specific area,” Mackay said.
Mackay also said after testing in a specific area of 250 students, she expects the widespread rollout of this technology by the end of the year.
“I saw a video on the news and it broke my heart,” Mackay said “It was two young girls and they were sitting on the sidewalk in the parking lot of a Taco Bell so they could get Wi-Fi access to do their homework. That’s just wrong. We’ve got to bridge the digital divide so that all of our children have a level playing field for their connection.”
Contact the reporter at tprober6@asu.edu.
