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Among many other lessons, COVID highlighted the importance of access to technology in education. Technology is no longer a handy supplement or supportive mechanism for teachers to create dynamic lesson plans. Instead, it has worked its way through traditional teaching methods and administration of education to become an essential piece of a quality education. Recognizing that this is an issue in education and other foundational pillars of society, California attempted through Senate Bill 156 to rectify the digital divide of access to broadband internet by pledging a substantial portion of its budget to ensure that all homes and businesses could access high speed internet. As California continues to navigate budget challenges that inevitably trickle down to education, the difficulty in balancing the demands of today with the infrastructure needed to build for tomorrow are in no better way demonstrated than they are when attempting to provide what is required to provide students a quality education.
This is an unacceptable regression considering that over 2 million Californians remain unconnected to the internet. Even among those with access, 15.4 million Californians are still stuck in one-provider monopolies, many of whom are from lower-income, Latino, African American, tribal and rural communities.
