Broadband for all: students and adults

I recently read in a brochure from the La Conner School District that the District is providing laptops to those children without. While that is an important and vital step, it is only a first step – as I’m sure the District knows. After all, a laptop does not do a child any good if there’s no internet connection from home.

While the District advises that it has a few mobile hotspots to loan, the only other option the District has (and offers at this time) is WiFi from its parking lots. There is, of course, WiFi outside the town’s library as the library is closed due to the pandemic. As a result, children must sit outside the school or library or parents must drive them and remain with them while their children are in school virtually.

Most, if not all, would agree that this is an untenable situation for both children and parents.

Imagine your child sitting in the parking lot during our cold, rainy winters.

And we do not even have to look several months ahead.

With smoke clogging our skies (and our lungs), it is unhealthy for any child (and parent) to sit in a parking lot (whether in a car or not) breathing the smoky air.

And what if the family has more than one child in school, can you imagine how unworkable it will be for two or more children to be in a car going to “class” via Zoom.

While the Town of La Conner and parts of the Swinomish Reservation are serviced by broadband, there remain families within the District who lack broadband coverage – and not due to any failure on their part to pay for the service.

No company currently extends service to these areas.

And now, with the pandemic upon us, many parents are working from home, that is, if they have access to internet service. Or, under the above scenario, they are taken away from their work to sit in a car while their child(ren) are in virtual school.

Broadband coverage is essential for our children’s education, for our parents’ job security and for our economy. I understand that the state is interested in trying to fix this problem, but it depends upon the availability of federal funds and it requires the District to apply for funds to extend broadband service to all its students. I urge the District to apply for such funds so that it can provide a real education to all of its students.

If the District has a lobbyist, it should direct the lobbyist to appeal to the Legislature to appropriate enough funds so that all children can access their school in our new virtual age. To do nothing more is shirking their responsibility to provide every child with an education.

Alix Foster

Dodge Valley