Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — Students living at or near the poverty line are struggling with homework. Like many other things, homework moved to online space as a result of the pandemic. Now, a new project aims to provide access to hundreds of thousands.
Seventy percent of teachers nowadays require a student to have at least one school work to be completed online.
More than 20 percent of Pittsburgh households don’t have access to the internet, as of recent census figures.
Internet is a Requirement for Pittsburgh Students
Not having access to the internet results in putting the Pittsburgh students in danger of falling behind their peers.
Education experts believe that this “homework gap” could add to an already massive disparity in achievements between low-income and their peers in wealthier districts.
In order to fill this gap, the 1 Million Project has come to Pittsburgh. The executive chairman of the board of Sprint Corporation founded in 2017 with this 1 Million Project aims to spread internet access to low-income students.
In the first year of implementation, the program brought 113.000 students online. By the end of the 2018-19 school year it plans to connect 260,000 students in 33 states.
1 Million Project has distributed new phones, tablets and other internet-enabling devices to 630 students for the start of the school year.
