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Growing up in her family\u2019s Los Angeles apartment, Jimenez didn\u2019t have access to a computer or broadband internet.
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\u201cWe couldn\u2019t afford to pay $70 a month for internet plus the other installation fees housing authority required. Lack of internet access was particularly difficult for me in high school,\u201d Jimenez wrote in an essay<\/a>. \u201cOften my teachers would assign homework that required me to go online. My solution was usually to use the computers at my local library until the building closed.\u201d Her problem worsened when she got to college. \u201cI had to balance a full-time course load, a part-time job, and a part-time internship,\u201d Jimenez wrote. \u201cMy only spare time was at night, and the local library was closed by the time I could get there. The next closest public building in my neighborhood with free Wi-Fi access was the hospital. When I had no other choice, I spent late night hours working on assignments in the waiting area of the emergency room.\u201d Jimenez’s experience is all too common for students from low-income families. In fact, nearly one in five<\/a> teenagers can\u2019t complete their homework because they lack internet access at home. And for Jimenez and others, the problem follows them to college. In a recent study<\/a>, 20 percent of college students reported having issues maintaining access to effective technology. Many of the students included in the study had laptops or smartphones, but they didn\u2019t work consistently. And the students couldn\u2019t afford to have them fixed or buy new ones. Additionally, many of the students lived off campus and didn\u2019t have reliable access to the internet. “We find big gaps in the quality and reliability of the technology students own,” Jessica Calarco<\/a>, an assistant professor of sociology in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the study, said in a statement<\/a>. “Students of color and students from low-income families rely on older devices that are more likely to break down.” But the \u201cdigital divide\u201d could soon come to an end, thanks to a new bill<\/a> introduced by the U.S. Senate that would invest hundreds of millions of dollars in expanding internet and technology access to less fortunate communities. If passed, the Digital Equity Act of 2019 would create two new annual $125 million grant programs geared to broaden digital equity and fund digital inclusion programs across the United States. \u201cIt will help ensure our communities\u200a \u2014\u200a especially those that have been historically overlooked\u200a \u2014\u200a don\u2019t get left behind in our rapidly-evolving, technology-driven society,\u201d Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the architect of the bill, wrote in a recent Medium post<\/a>. Fittingly, many education organizations have already supported the bill, including the State Educational Technology Directors Association, the American Libraries Association, the Consortium for School Networking, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband, and others. And a wide range of organizations have turned to Twitter to voice their support.
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