 Thirty eight families are going online with the help of a pilot program here,
and another 600 will likely be added next year when the district offers Internet
to all low-income families with students in junior high.
The lesson plan for seventh-graders involves as much work online as it does work
in the classroom, and that’s the reality. But who will pay for it?
An Internet-access plan from Bloomington’s District 87 Superintendent Barry
Reilly will cost $27,000 next year, and it could cost as much as $100,000 — once
all needy students in grades three through 12 are connected. Yet the district’s
budget for next year is expected to be $2.3 million less than next year.
Reilly said the $100,000 Internet price tag would be equal to about two
teachers’ salaries, but he is not cutting teaching positions to pay for the
Internet hookups.
“I understand people out there not wanting us to use tax dollars for (internet
connections at home), and I don’t, either.” Reilly said he is looking for
sponsors to pick up the cost, but he’s not waiting.
Reilly is paying for the first two years of Internet service with available
cash. As the district spends less on text books, the school will have more to
spend on online tools, he says.
“This is the wave now, I wouldn’t even say this is the wave of the future. This
is how things are happening now.
“I see this as a social justice issue,” Reilly said. “We want to make sure that,
when kids go home, there’s a level playing field, meaning that everyone has
access to the resources.”
Reilly said students are expected to go online for research, to access
assignments and to work on group projects. He’s said Internet access via
smartphones isn’t enough.
[to top of second column] |
 “The education is really the important part,” Lan Neugent,
interim executive director of the nonprofit education technology
group The State Educational Technology Directors Association.
Neugent said parents would not stand for low-income students having
different text books, and they shouldn’t stand for them having
different Internet options.
“It’s equal access,” Neugent said. “If kids go to school and they
can just use technology in school, and then they come home and don’t
have access … We wouldn’t stand for that.”
Neugnet said across the country more and more schools have shifting
more and more course work online.
The new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and
Careers, or the PARCC Test — part of the Common Core curriculum — is
supposed to be entirely online, for instance.
But the testing is at school, and these Internet connections are at
home.
“We’re talking about kids. Of course they are going to use that
Internet access for more than just doing their homework,” Reilly
said. “Whether they do two hours of homework (or) play a game on
there for an hour, it doesn’t cost anything more.”
The Internet connections are filtered through the school’s servers
before connecting to the homes.
“(It’s a) good investment, not an expense,” Neugent said. “It’s an
investment to make sure that children from a non-privileged class
have an equal opportunity to they can advance.”
[This
article courtesy of
Watchdog.]
Click here to respond to the editor about this article |
