Biden Administration’s EdTech Plan: Bridge the Student Digital Divide

With a new administration comes new policy visions, and the Biden administration has already vocalized some priorities for the United States’ education system.

Reporting out of The 74 Million asserts that the new administration is pointing to the digital divide amongst students as one of the first inequities it plans to tackle, as millions of students still don’t have consistent access to reliable internet to participate in remote or hybrid learning during the pandemic.

Last summer, it was estimated that 17 million U.S. students lacked the internet service they need to fully participate in online learning, and a UCLA report showed that a third of households have limited digital access, with low-income families especially likely to lack devices or an internet connection.

The story quotes Bart Epstein, CEO of non-profit EdTech Evidence Exchange, as having knowledge of the administrations education plans to name a new director for the Office of Educational Technology.

President Biden has also already named a new acting chair of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel, who has been a vocal proponent of closing the “homework gap” via internet discount programs for schools. President Biden is also bringing on Education Secretary-designate Miguel Cardona, who, in his role as Connecticut’s state commissioner, focused heavily on increased device and internet service access.

To source some further front-line insights, host Daniel Litwin invited host of MarketScale’s Remote Possibilities Kevin Hogan onto this Industry Update.

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