A public-private partnership announced Tuesday will help bring internet service to thousands of students in 36 school districts throughout rural areas of Georgia. Governor Brian Kemp announced that AT&T is making a donation to the Georgia Department of Education, Foundation for Public Education that will be used to 448 Wi-Fi Rangers that will triple the number of Wi-Fi buses in the state.
Each district will create its own mobilization plans for placing the Wi-Fi Rangers on school buses or other public vehicles to reach the highest numbers of unserved students in their communities. Each Wi-Fi Ranger can enable internet.
All 36 school systems chosen to participate in this partnership are located in rural Georgia. The selection was based on several factors: poverty level of the school population, the student-to-device ratio in a school’s existing technology inventory, and the school’s status on either the Comprehensive Support and Improvement or Targeted Support and Improvement lists.
“AT&T is doing our state a great service, helping us take a step forward to address the lack of available broadband connectivity for Georgia students,” said Gov. Kemp. “This issue has come into sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic as so many rural students struggle to continue remote learning without internet access. We thank AT&T for recognizing that the children affected by this lack of connectivity are the young people who represent our future. Their generosity will leave a lasting legacy.”
AT&T’s donation includes two free months of service for each device. Additional grant funding was applied to extend the impact of the initiative to an additional three months of service for each device.
“Assisting our students during the summer months and beyond with learning opportunities has never been more important,” said Michael Williams, Madison County School Superintendent. “Our rural county is predominantly agriculturally based. We don’t have a huge business and industry base in our area. This donation will enable us to serve those big pockets of students around our county without internet service with materials and instructions for summer enrichment, and it will help ease some of our back-to-school stresses as well.”
According to a Federal Communications Commission report released last month, of Americans not connected to the internet, 78 percent live in rural areas. More than 22 percent of rural Americans do not have access to high-speed internet, compared to 1.5 percent of urban dwellers without high-speed internet. This means that rural students are almost 15 times more likely to lack access to the internet for remote learning when school buildings are closed.
Georgia school buildings have been closed since mid-March because of the COVID-19 outbreak, and students and teachers have had to rely on on-line learning from home.
Officials from the 36 school districts will choose locations for Wi-Fi Ranger bus networks, sending them to unserved areas where students do not have access to internet at home. Access information will be communicated directly to their students and families who will be able to access the Wi-Fi by parking nearby or by walking to the Wi-Fi Ranger bus location. Parents and students will be directed to follow the state guidelines for social distancing, but they will be able to access the internet signal within a certain distance of the bus. The signal for each bus has a range for connection up to 300 feet – the length of a football field.
