Good morning,
I'm a math teacher and self acknowledged technophile. I have been a tech integration specialist for most of my career, as well as teaching math and being certified in technology. I'm teaching hybrid model middle school, and fully online college classes. It has never before been more clear to me that every home in America needs quality, fast internet service. I don't care who pays for it, but it is a necessity as we face what looks like a harsher second wave of Corona. There are places in the US that don't have the option of high speed internet because of their physical location. They are stuck with flaky satellite connections or cell phone service, neither of which can stream video and do the sorts of things our students need to stay engaged in school when they are at home.
Internet service should be a right for all Americans, focusing first on the students. The government (or a private company contracted by the government) should immediately decree that anyone who has an address can receive internet faster than 100 mbps for that address. They should bury that cable, bundled with the electric service, to every address in the nation. Each student needs a device from their district if they can't provide one, and the ability to receive internet on it.
This does several potentially life changing things for our society.
a) Like the CCC after the great depression, it makes a huge number of jobs available. Jobs that are low risk for Covid, outdoors primarily. People who aren't working due to Covid could do these jobs and receive fair pay.
b) Students with internet access can talk to their teachers and classmates, even if it isn't safe for them to do so in person.
c) People of any age can talk to one another virtually, which combats the depression and all of the other related problems that are coming up due to Covid.
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