ON THE STEPS OF THE SENATE: On June 18, Senator Angus King (I-ME) and Senator Shelley Capito (R-WV) introduced a bill which would provide low-income and rural students with more access to digital resources outside of school. “The Digital Learning Equity Act of 2015” would support state and district initiatives to provide Internet and devices to students, and would authorize a national study on student access to digital resources at home. According to Senator King’s press release, the bill was inspired by the “Check-out the Internet” initiative at the Cherryfield Public Library in Cherryfield, Maine, which allows students to check out mobile Wifi providers and use them with school-provided devices at home. More on the bill here.
The bill has been endorsed by organizations including iNACOL, the Common Sense Media, and CoSN. “Through my work on this issue at the FCC, it’s become clear to me that the Homework Gap is the cruelest part of the digital divide,” Jessica Rosenworcel, Federal Communications Commissioner, wrote in a statement. The Digital Learning Equity Act “puts the spotlight on the Homework Gap and ways to bridge it.”
