Digital divide at issue in NJ
Officials don't know how many kids are affected
By: Stacey Barchenger
Trenton Bureau
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... About 193,000 New Jersey schoolchildren needed computers or internet access for remote learning as of last month, [09/2020] a problem one sate senator said was created by the Murphy administration;s slow distribution of federal funds.
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Students across the sate begin a new school year this week, [09/08/2020] with most districts relying on remote or hybrid schedules to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, interim Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer appeared before the state Senate budget committee Thursday [09/10/2020] to discuss his department budget as proposed by Governor Phil Murphy.
..... What he got was a grilling from senators, who said the administration had not budgeted enough for education or worked quickly to make federal funds available to school districts, including $54 million to buy necessary computers for their students. Murphy announced the funding for learning devices in mid-July [2020] and said the funding would "once and forever and always elimate the digital divide."
..... State Senator Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, chair of the senate Education Committee, asked Dehmer for the number of children currently unable to learn from home. Dehmer did not provide that number as of Thursday [09/10/2020] saying grants to purchase technology were being distributed on an ongoing basis.
..... "The fact that the repository of information, which is the department, can't report to the Legislature how many students are still disconnected is a huge red flag for al of us," Ruiz said. "We are ultimately engaging in the process of filtering kids toward failure. IF we knew that kids were not going to have a computer available to them for the first day of school, why would we allow school to open knowing that child could not function to the best of his/her ability?"
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Dehmer said progress has been made but that there were supply chain issues that prevented devices from being delivered more rapidly, and ne noted that grant money was being distributed to districts that order devices, like computers or internet hot spots, and then seek reimbursement from the state.
..... Dehmer said that about 193,000 devices to help students learn remotely had been ordered as of mid-August. [2020] Of those, at least 43,000 devices were items like hot spots to provide internet connections, he said.
..... "We have contributed to the digital divide during this crisis whether we want to admit to it or mot," Ruiz told Dehmer, nothing that she was not speaking of a failure by the Legislature. "I think part of fixing issues is having the ability to stand up and accept the responsibility that there was a problem and this is how to fix it. You say you want to understand the issue more? A kid meeds a computer. The district has funding. Connect them to the tablet.
..... "There isn't this level of priority that I feel should exist," Ruiz said. We've created so much dramatic pressure on local school districts as opposed to the department being an anchor or institution that districts can lean on in the time of state's estimate of students caught in the so-called "digital divide" has fluctuated, at least before drawing Ruiz's concern. Department of Education officials say the numbers, which are reported by districts, have changed because districts didn't always respond to state surveys of their needs.
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In June, [2020] it was about 89,000 kids, down from 130,000 early in the pandemic, according to former Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet, who left the department to lead Kean University in July. [2020] The state then conducted a mandatory survey of school districts and found that about 358,000 students out of more than 1.3 million didn't have devices. Using an estimate factoring in available grant programs to buy technology and the number of low-income students per district, the department said last month [08/2020] that the number of students in the gap was 230,000.
..... With 193,000 devices recently ordered, according to Dehmer, that means nearly 40,000 children may still be without access.
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In response about the digital divide, Murphy said $54 million of that state's estimated $2.4 billion share of federal stimulus dollars would go into a grant program to help districts buy technology. His budget proposal, which must be approved by the Legislature, says $400 million of those CARES act funds will go to education purposes, though lawmakers questioned whether that is enough.
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"There's just some frustration among all of us just trying to wrap our heads around this CARES Act piece," state Senator Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen, chair of the budget committee, told Dehmer.
..... State Senator Dawn Addiego, D-Burlington, said the state's
goal should be a return to in-person education and that Murphy's budget proposal may not include enough money to do so safety.
..... "We do need to make sure the funding and budgetary resources are there to accomplish this," she said. "I'm just a little concerned not everything is going to be covered."
.... Murphy has said $100 million will go to schools for reopening costs on top of the $54 million to buy learning devices. He earmarked another $250million for child care, but Ruiz said that wasn't directly tied to education and shouldn't be counted as such.
..... "Out of all those billions of dollars, the Department of Education was given $150 million," she said. "That is - no other word can be used except for shameful."