Ending the digital divide ends poverty: Bringing cheap internet to America’s low income Hispanic kids

If the Federal Communications Commission and the Secretary of Education have any say in the matter, a digital revolution is coming to America’s schools. And especially to low income Hispanic kids.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan just announced the goal of putting tablet computers and digital textbooks in the hands of every US student within the next five years.

Of course, they realize this revolutionary concept will be difficult to achieve, but they’re “going big” and aiming to transform education from the first day of kindergarten all the way through.

One of the primary issues the program is designed to overcome is the digital divide between the Latino community and the rest of American society. A recent survey said that 65 percent of the population has broadband access at home versus a mere 45 percent in the Latino community. Genachowski and Duncan believe that helping Latinos adopting mobile and wireless broadband at much higher levels which will lead directly to better educations, better healthcare, and lower poverty rates.

While schools are rapidly moving toward technology-based education, but Latinos families don’t have home internet access, the problem becomes very clear. Under those circumstances, Latino children are destined to be left behind their peers, assuring the continuation of poverty.

Genachowski and Duncan think they’ve come up with a solution and we agree. It’s called Connect to Compete.

Connect to Compete is a unique partnership backed by government entities (like the FCC and Department of Education) and business entities (including a who’s who of the nation’s largest internet service providers). Connect 2 Compete and related programs like Comcast’s Internet Essentials, AT&T’s Aspire Initiative, and CenturyLink’s Internet Basics were all designed to reduce the digital divide by bringing cheap internet, inexpensive computers and free computer training to America’s low income families.

We firmly believe that helping the poor will help us all. So we applaud these noble efforts of the FCC, the Department of Education, Comcast, AT&T, CenturyLink and many other public-spirited companies that are doing everything they can to end the digital divide that separates America’s poor from the rest of the nation.

Source: Huffington Post