America’s Education Infrastructure Isn’t Prepared for the Coronavirus
March 17, 2020
As the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, spreads across the globe and throughout the United States, everyone— from governments to small businesses—is scrambling to prepare for the rapidly increasing outbreak. Many workplaces have moved to telework schedules, while major conferences and festivals have canceled or postponed, beloved museums have shut their doors, and entire cities have begun sheltering in place.
Universities across the United States have even started moving their classes online to help promote social distancing. Some, like Harvard University, have also shut down their campuses entirely, requiring students who live in on-campus housing to vacate. It’s only a matter of time before K-12 schools are expected to do the same. Unfortunately, large parts of the country, especially rural areas, do not have the infrastructure to do so.
The FCC estimates that around 97% of urban Americans have access to high-speed internet service, compared to only 65% of those living in rural areas and 60% on tribal lands. In sum, nearly 30 million Americans are left in the digital dark ages. Of those 30 million Americans, it’s estimated 12 million are children living in homes lacking broadband. Without access to reliable high-speed internet, how can schools in remote areas expect to continue instruction online?
In a comment to Axios, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks stated, “Coronavirus, without some immediate changes being made, is certainly going to exacerbate the haves and have nots for who’s digitally connected.” We’re already seeing this come to light. In areas with robust connectivity, school districts have begun preparations to bring the classroom to their students, including having a system to provide computers to households that don’t have one and meals for students from food-insecure homes. But for those living in places without widespread, reliable broadband, schools are either shutting down with no plans for a digital transition or weathering the storm, business-as-usual. In places like West Virginia, where schools are shutting down indefinitely, even a few days without school can mean falling even further behind the national average. The digital divide isn’t only disruptive for education. For many of these children, going to school can mean the difference between having a meal for the day or starving, exacerbating an already difficult challenge to address.
Although the FCC approved a plan to allocate around $20 billion over 10 years to fund rural broadband deployment, determining where those areas actually are has been a difficult task for the agency. Members of Congress have even criticized the plan for not doing enough and potentially making the digital divide even worse. Moreover, as the coronavirus is a present and rapidly evolving issue, a 10-year deployment will hardly be useful for those currently facing the digital divide. America's education infrastructure isn't prepared to handle this kind of transition to digital education.
Given that children are the least at-risk of infection of COVID-19, it's possible that many of America's K-12 schools won't actually need to be taken online. But what happens to the teachers, parents, and staff who would face an increased risk of exposure if the schools continue to operate in-person? What happens to the teachers who face unemployment or the parents who have to scramble to find childcare when schools shut down entirely? How far behind will children fall when they are expected to substitute in-school instruction with take-home packets? We shouldn’t wait to find out.
As the rapid spread of the virus has proven, it's impossible to predict what kind of infrastructure is essential or what the actual consequences will be. Why wait until it's too late? Building a robust digital infrastructure for all, regardless of their age or location, should be a top priority for the U.S. government and private sector, alike. It shouldn’t take a matter of national security or a global pandemic to motivate policymakers to see it through to fruition. By that point, it will be too late.