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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Texas Teachers: Rural Kids Need Better Broadband

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Monday, March 15, 2021   

AUSTIN, Texas -- The rural-versus-urban broadband divide became a more urgent problem for Texas and many other parts of the U.S. when COVID-19 forced schools to close.

The Texas community of Bastrop is just a 30-minute drive from Austin, but its rural character meant when the pandemic hit, the lack of internet connectivity kept the communities worlds apart.

Kathy D'Amico, a teacher who coordinates the Response to Intervention efforts in the Bastrop Independent School District, said adopting remote learning was no easy feat.

"I'm in the system," D'Amico explained. "I know the system backwards and forwards. I know what to do, I know what they need to do, and it was still a huge challenge."

D'Amico believes the lack of consistent technology in many rural parts of Texas caused frustration for students and parents, and could have resulted in teachers grading on privilege rather than ability, because not all children have had access to the same tools or technology.

Lindy Schweitzer, a second-grade teacher in Bastrop, found many families often had only one internet device to be shared among several children.

Others couldn't participate in remote learning, according to Schweitzer, because the system was down or there were too many people on the same Wi-Fi hotspot.

"So, we started off sending out school buses with hotspots on them and that wasn't enough; so then, we had to start ordering personal home hotspots and there weren't always enough for everybody to get a hotspot that needed a hotspot," Schweitzer recounted.

Emily Dominguez, a pre-kindergarten teacher in the Bastrop, said remote learning isn't ideal, but children were still able to ask questions, learn how to speak in full sentences and hold a pencil.

However, she also experienced audio drops and knew the lessons weren't reaching all the students.

"Oftentimes I couldn't hear children, or it was so scratchy that I just had to guess and try to read their lips when I was doing a Zoom," Dominguez noted. "Testing was a big challenge as well."

Gov. Greg Abbott recently declared rural connectivity a priority issue for Texas, and teachers say those investments are critical to students and the communities where they live.

Disclosure: American Federation of Teachers contributes to our fund for reporting on Education, Health Issues, Livable Wages/Working Families, and Social Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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