At 1 p.m. on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas boarded a flight to Washington D.C. to cast a critical vote on the debt ceiling, but first he had an important stop to make at Cárdenas Elementary School in Van Nuys.
Tuesday morning’s visit gave Cárdenas a chance to see the thriving Latino community at the school named in honor of his parents, and to witness the impact of federal funding of technology at schools that he advocated for – and that he is now fighting to preserve.
In 2021, Congressman Cárdenas helped secure the Federal Communication Commission’s Emergency Connectivity Fund, a $7.17 billion program backed by the U.S. Congress as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. It helped schools across the U.S. provide reliable internet connection and electronic devices to students as they pivoted to remote learning.
At a national level, the program has provided 13 million Wi-Fi connected devices and more than 8 million broadband connections, benefiting more than 17 million students at about 11,000 schools. The Los Angeles Unified School District has utilized $280 million of it to provide laptops, tablets and at-home internet connectivity Cárdenas said.
The initial rollout of home devices and hotspots under then-LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner in 2020 was criticized for connectivity problems in low-income households, unprepared educators, and numerous other challenges. Superintendent Carvalho said on Tuesday that the district has reached its goal of providing devices and home internet to every student in the district, thanks in large part to federal funding.
Although the pandemic state of emergency may be over, students’ devices and home internet connectivity are long-term funding needs, he added.
But the remaining money in the Emergency Connectivity Fund is at risk as some Republicans want the government to recall unspent pandemic-era relief funds to help address the nation’s debt crisis. This money is estimated at between $50 billion…
Read the full article here