$4 billion in federal dollars were assigned to build infrastructure that will bring the internet to marginalized communities, according to Dallas Morning News. The state’s new broadband office is working on this project to solve network and communication problems that the pandemic brought on rural and low-income students.
When the pandemic started and the use and access to the internet became essential to continue the working-learning process, people from Texas were forced to come up with temporary solutions. They opened school parking lots for students that needed internet connectivity to do their homework or wired buses that parked in neighborhoods.
With bipartisan support Texas lawmakers passed this broadband office and assigned it a 4 million dollars budget, in order to solve these issues, which affect all Texas school districts on a bigger or smaller scale.
Dallas ISD has run a project to provide broadband to all students that don’t have it at home. There are 10 cell towers on campuses throughout the district, but to achieve the goal of every student having access to the internet, another 100 cell towers would have to be installed in the district.
Additionally, officials in Dallas ISD have offered students to access a free plan provided by AT&T. According to The Dallas Morning News 1,400 families are signed up for this program