Lack of internet access puts ‘distance learning’ out of reach for many

In Chester County, about 90 miles east of Memphis, parents of public school students have until Wednesday to decide on virtual versus in-person learning ahead of the district’s August 10 reopening.

But for many families in the county of about 17,000 people, there is no real choice.

“Access to high-speed internet will be the determining factor in the ability to enroll in the virtual school option,” a message from Chester County Schools to parents said.

About half of all Chester County residents lack access to a single internet provider, according to data compiled by the Federal Communications Commission — data that federal officials and advocates for internet accessibility say is likely an undercount of the true number of people who lack access to an internet service provider. The data also does not include individuals who have access but cannot afford services.

“Unfortunately, for us, we can’t depend on distance learning,” Troy Kilzer II, director of schools, said Monday. “There are large sections of our county that have absolutely no coverage.”

So far, families of 225 of the district’s 2,750 students have opted into a distance learning track ahead of this week’s decision deadline, Kilzer said.

For decades, weak broadband services, particularly in rural areas of the state, have impeded economic investment and business growth. In one 2016 survey, 16% of Tennessee rural government leaders said that business had rejected their areas due to a lack of broadband services.

This year’s COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp new focus the consequences of that persistent digital divide on children’s education.

“I think we all knew that broadband was important prior to the pandemic, but it has really elevated the fact that communities without broadband are being left behind,” said Crystal Ivey, broadband director for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

Gov. Bill Lee has urged all 147 Tennessee public school districts to physically reopen this fall, saying that in-person learning is the best option for children.

Most districts, however, are offering a virtual learning component — either starting the school year with online learning only or a two-track system allowing parents concerned about their child’s exposure to COVID-19 in schools to learn at home, online.

The limited internet options now available to many of the state’s families and children can be traced back to years of decisions by state lawmakers, subject to strong lobbying pressures by AT&T, Comcast and other internet service providers.

Tennessee is one of 19 states that have imposed significant barriers to internet expansion, according to Jim Baller, co-founder and president of Coalition for Internet Choice, a Washington, DC-based organization that advocates on behalf of local communities to invest in internet services.

In Tennessee’s case, state law prevents local government-owned electric utilities that offer internet access within their service area to expand beyond those geographical limits.

For years, efforts by Deputy Speaker Janice Bowling, a Republican state senator from Tullahoma, was among a handful of lawmakers who sought to set aside those restrictions through new legislation.

Without such restrictions, public utility companies such as Chattanooga’s Electric Power Board — which has laid fiber internet cable accessible to nearly every household in Hamilton County — could expand to neighboring communities such as Sequatchie County, where one in three lack internet access, or Bledsoe County, where fewer than half of all residents have internet access. Bledsoe County has since launched its own public-utility sponsored internet service.

“Most states do not have laws that create a mechanism to retard local governments from moving forward,” with internet services, Baller said.

The digital divide among students also extends to families unable to afford internet access, even if service is available in their area.