CTC Technology & Energy | City of Madison | FTTP Implementation Plan | September 2018
Educators Identify a “Homework Gap”
According to the Consortium for School Networking, a nonprofit research and advocacy group,
seven in 10 teachers assign students homework that requires access to broadband.
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Some
students can complete this homework after school or at libraries. However, it would be difficult
for many of them to complete this work at home, given that almost one in three households do
not subscribe to broadband services, in many cases because they say they cannot afford it. This
problem is often called the “homework gap.”
Social Service Agencies Move Services Online
Many government agencies are moving services online. For example, Cuyahoga County, Ohio,
which includes Cleveland, is increasingly attempting to reduce costs and improve efficiency by
moving toward online service delivery.
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One goal is to reduce the need for low-income recipients
of country services to make personal visits to offices in central locations, an inefficient process
for both county employees and aid recipients.
According to Scot Rourke, chief transformation officer for the county, the goal is to reduce the
size of the county’s social services bureaucracy and reinvest those savings in more broadband
and job training for residents.
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But this will require home broadband, computers, and tutoring
on how to use software. A nonprofit group called DigitalC is working to ensure residents of the
county’s housing projects will gain these resources and skills.
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DigitalC’s training will help
members of the city’s low-income population gain basic skills and perhaps obtain degrees
through online schools such as Career Online High School.
Municipal Engagement and Broadband Infrastructure
Robust broadband connections, access to computing devices, and computing skills are all
important prerequisites for participation in the modern information economy. Madison is
considering how municipally enabled competition enhances broadband service and whether low-
income residents benefit from broadband and from the presence of competition in the
broadband marketplace. A large body of research suggests the answer is yes. And the case studies
of Kansas City and UC2B clearly illustrate how this can unfold.
It is also important to recognize how little data is available to fully explore many of these
questions. According to the NTIA, approximately 33 million U.S. households, 27 percent, had not
adopted residential broadband internet service as of July 2015; 20 percent of all U.S. households
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“Advancing Digital Equity and Closing the Homework Gap: The Need to Connect Students at Home,” Alliance for
Excellent Education and Consortium for School Networking, May 2017,
http://cosn.org/sites/default/files/Digital_Equity_Homework_Gap_5.11.17.pdf
(accessed March 2018).
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“Online Services,” Cuyahoga County, Ohio, https://www.cuyahogacounty.us/online-services (accessed March
2018).
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Interview with David Talbot, October 2016
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“We are DigitalC,” DigitalC, https://www.digitalc.org/about-us/ (accessed March 2018).