Dear @Jack, you seem like a good guy, you want to help, and giving 10 million dollars to the City to get kids online is a great gesture. The problem is that it won’t help and it may actually hurt Oakland long term. I know you are new to Oakland. But things happen different here. …
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.
Access Denied Ep. 3: Racism, Redlining and the Digital Divide in Oakland
When 15 million students in this country can’t even get online to access their distance learning materials, something needs to change. Welcome to “Access Denied,” where host Dirk Tillotson covers the movement to provide internet access to all students regardless of family income. In episode 3, Dirk welcomed Oakland school board member Jumoke Hinton Hodge…
The Geography of Opportunity in Oakland; The Digital Divide Edition
The past is not dead, in fact it is not even past, to misquote Faulkner. The specters of racially exclusive policies still weigh heavily on Oakland’s underserved families. From asthma rates, to environmental stress, to attendance, to school quality, and now even internet access, for the 25,000 students that need support. We can trace our…
How Chicago is Conquering the Digital Divide, while Oakland and Most Everywhere Else, Flounders
Learn how Chicago is providing free internet city wide, and how Oakland can too, we speak to the folks who made it happen on Access Denied Friday at 9 am Pacific
A local-to-global perspective on the digital divide in Oakland
When Anietie “Nate” Udofia thinks about the digital divide in Oakland, and the “new normal” public education is facing because of the pandemic, he does so with a global perspective. Udofia is a Nigerian American who has decades of experience working on distance learning and helping communities gain access to digital tools. He sees similarities…