A report to relish
It’s not every day that the words Arkansas, education and national leader wind up in the same sentence, much less the same headline. And in a time when political antics and absurdities dominate the headlines, good news is lucky if it plays as close as second fiddle to fiasco.
Today it’s taking first chair, at least in this column.
Education Superhighway is a nonprofit organization that advocates broadband connectivity for the nation’s public school classrooms. Its annual State of the States report praised Arkansas as a “Blueprint for Success” as a national model. The wording is worth quoting verbatim: “Arkansas has led the nation to 1 mbps per student of Internet access in 98 percent of its school districts.”
That national triumph was no accident. On the contrary, it’s an accomplishment deserving of recognition and kudos on a number of levels.
Some were skeptical initially about the public-private partnership put in place by Gov. Asa Hutchinson soon after taking office in 2015.
The novel idea and plan for upgrading the Arkansas Public School Computer Network (APSCN) also raised doubtful eyebrows by aiming beyond the FCC’s short-term connectivity speed goal of 100 kilobits per second (kbps).
It required public vision to realize that more Internet speed would be needed to keep up with device technology development, but more importantly, it took private cooperation among competitors to coordinate and implement a new Internet infrastructure.
The result was a real rarity: Not only did our state seize the gold medal in the race to 1 mbps per student access, but the coalition of Arkansas Internet providers slashed the cost of broadband by 86 percent along the way.
In an incredible feat of efficiency, this national spotlight performance in bringing fiber-optic broadband to almost every student in four years (only two schools are left to connect) was achieved with only a 7 percent increase in state funding.
For a rural state, that seemed particularly challenging at first. Fiber lines would stretch miles to remote schools and pass nary a house or business en route that might help subsidize it. The likelihood that large nationwide providers would lead in such scenarios? Zero.
The reason Arkansas led the nation was because Arkansas-based telecom companies led the way locally.
The list of involved Internet access service providers features a dozen independent telecom companies with Arkansas ZIP codes; some serve only one or two school districts. But as part of a larger team, they are all key players, and without them Arkansas wouldn’t have gotten top billing in the Education Superhighway annual report.
Broadband connectivity is the cureall antidote to rural isolation, for communities and their schools. Remote, or cloud-based, everything is the rage. Its ability to refine education and learning, especially for rural schools, offers potential beyond our present imagination.
Education Superhighway officials called out rural districts as leading the charge to reach the 1 mbps per student goal. “With an average of only 200 students per school and without the resources … [of] larger districts, these communities are aggressively adopting digital learning as a means of leveling the playing field,” the report stated in a sidebar.
Rural single-school districts, it noted, invest eight times as much in Internet access to get five times the median bandwidth. “These investments open the door to 1:1 student-to-device programs that enable schools to dramatically expand their course offerings, provide access to virtual labs and field trips, and embrace project-based learning.”
All of which enhances even the most rural student’s readiness for career or college.
A big potential upside: the emerging opportunity to bring more vocational career paths online. Rural students that go off to college often also wind up having to leave for jobs. But every small community needs carpenters, electricians, plumbers; small industries need welders, machine operators, mechanics. Remote learning tracks at the local school in pursuit of those skills can help keep rural communities vibrant. Anyone involved in research of any sort understands the vast power Internet resources provide. Organizing instruction in ways that embrace and incorporate all the various teaching apps and methods (including those not even dreamed up yet) can catapult rural schools and students to new heights.
As October opens toward the autumnal spectacle that showcases our Natural State’s rural beauty, it recalls a line from Christina Rossetti: “One day in the country is worth a month in town.” For those who relish rural living, Internet connectivity is the ideal elixir: part love potion that preserves the admiration of picturesque panoramas, and part stimulating tonic that promotes livelihood possibilities in isolated locales.
Let the winds of political discontent wail in the east. Here in the lower heartland of harvest beauty and heritage, applaud our state government officials and legislators and local telecoms for a job well done for our public schools and kids.
It’s fun to be No. 1. We should try it more often.
Correction
Like all writers, I hate typos and misspellings. Last week, one of the rascals got past me.
The phrase “advice and consent” is enshrined in our revered Constitution. Curses on the word gremlin that possessed my fingers to mistype “advise” instead.