Join us again as we start our regularly scheduled live broadcast THIS Friday, May 20th as Kennan invites David Silver and Patrick Messac of the Mayor’s Office and #OaklandUndivided as they unpack new developments in providing access to even more Oakland residents. #OaklandUndivided, a citywide effort to ensure every Oakland public school student has the tools necessary to support digital access in their home has delivered 29,000 computers and 10,000 hotspots, increasing home tech connectivity for students from low-income backgrounds from 12% to 98% pre-pandemic to now.
Internet for All
Internet Is Now a Right
To fully participate in school, now and going forward, every child needs and deserves high speed internet access. We are dedicated to that fight at the local, state and national level.
The coronavirus pandemic didn’t create the digital divide, but it has exposed once and for all the deep and unacceptable inequities that exist in our education system. Our goal is to emerge from this pandemic with a more equitable and durable internet infrastructure that guarantees that every child that needs access, can get it, free with no strings attached.
High-speed internet is no longer a luxury or a privilege. It is an essential utility — like electricity and telephone — and should be treated as such. Our political and business leaders should be held accountable for making this possible and ensuring that every child has access to the educational opportunities our country promises.
- Former education secretary Arne Duncan writes in the Washington Post that “the FCC can give Internet access to all Americans during this pandemic.”
- Oakland’s Dirk Tillotson wrote in Blavity that The FCC Needs To Act Now To Ensure All Low-Income Students Have Home Internet.
- In Philadelphia, educator Zachary Wright says internet providers need to step up and “Let Children Learn.”
- In Kentucky, teacher Garris Landon Stroud urges the FCC to fight for all poor families to be connected to the internet.
A Word from Your Host: the Access Lit Broadcast is live tomorrow at noon PST!
Join us tomorrow at noon PST for Kennan’s first LIVE broadcast on the last mile for digital equity!
Remembering Dirk on MLK Day
Remembering Dirk on MLK Day. “Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives”
Turning the Light Back on, Brightly, this New Year
Three months ago today, we all lost our inimitable Dirk Tillotson, the creator of this platform. He has been a resource and light to everyone he encountered in Oakland, here in New York, and abroad. As the co-pilot of our nonprofit Great School Choices, the past three months have been some of the worst days…
Digital Redlining – A recap!
Yesterday, we had a fantastic conversation with Public Knowledge‘s Chris Lewis on Digital Redlining. You can catch the full broadcast here. Its not a coincidence that the old redlining maps, which racially restricted housing, align almost perfectly with the current mapping of broadband access. And this lack of connections in places like Oakland is not…