Digital literacy can close or widen economic and academic inequality
The 1990s’ tech boom changed K- 12 classrooms forever. To keep pace with the rapid adoption of computers outside classrooms, a surge of investments poured into schools, designed to spread access to digital learning tools. Computers for kids had arrived.
However, though well-intentioned, those investments fueled educational inequality the likes of which we have rarely seen in our nation’s history.
Internet inequality
By the end of that decade, affluent schools, prepared with the educators and infrastructure necessary to make use of the new investments, sped toward the digitization of their classrooms. Under-resourced schools and low-income households were left in the dust, and are still struggling to catch up.
In the ’90s, lack of internet access drove economic inequality. Households earning incomes over $75,000 were 20 times more likely to have home internet access than those at lowest income levels.
In 2024, 42 million citizens still lack broadband connectivity. However, with federal broadband investments exceeding $100 billion in the last two years, this longstanding economic barrier is being addressed in a manner commensurate with the urgent need.
Now is the time to learn from our past mistakes and use broadband investments to pursue a national goal of 100% digital literacy. That endeavor must focus, first and foremost, on K-12 students.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 35% of Americans (56 million people) are digitally illiterate. This represents an existential threat, given that the World Economic Forum (WEF) projects that, by 2030, 95% of US jobs will require digital literacy.
Of the 56 million working Americans who are currently digitally illiterate, how many could have charted a different course, had their schools had the foresight to focus on the technological needs of the future, rather than the limiting orthodoxy of the present?
Cumulatively, by way of the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the federal government has unlocked more than $103 billion for broadband expansion in just two years. This represents a critical step in closing the digital divide, but our investment will go to waste if funds aren’t directed towards a national goal of 100% digital literacy.
Pittsburgh can’t wait
Pittsburgh should not wait for the federal or state government to address this issue.
In December of 2023, the Pittsburgh Digital Equity Coalition released its “Community Strategic Plan,” which made no mention of youth digital literacy. The plan’s focus on upgrading workers’ skills and ensuring that all Pittsburghers have access to broadband meets a critical need. But, absent a plan for the children of Pittsburgh, which should be co-created alongside the city’s school district, it is incomplete.
Achieving equity of opportunity for our citizens will be impossible without a plan to ensure youth digital literacy. While only 11% of white adults are digitally illiterate, this rate is much higher among Black (22%) and Hispanic adults (35%). Moreover, a lower percentage of native-born adults (13%) are digitally illiterate compared to foreign-born adults (36%).
Time is of the essence, as the disparities may already be widening. The WEF projects that, in 10 years, at least 50% of U.S. jobs will be changed by automation, but only 5% will be eliminated.
As AI technology evolves and improves, the same schools that adopted computers overnight in the ’90s are weaving AI education into their curriculum. The schools that were far behind before ChatGPT’s emergence may now see the canyon that already existed widen even further.
Advocates from throughout this region are stepping in to fill the vacancy left by our public institutions. Organizations like Literacy Pittsburgh have used their expertise in literacy to galvanize private sector companies to champion the cause of digital literacy.
Investments by the Peduto Administration revitalized our city’s recreation centers, where youth now benefit from the Citiparks Dept.’s “Rec 2 Tech” afterschool STEM program. And organizations like the Consortium for Public Education have devoted themselves to equipping educators with the skills needed to bolster the STEM talent pipeline. These efforts should be quickly replicated.
Creating digital literacy
Digital illiteracy hurts urban and rural, young and old, native born and immigrant, Democratic and Republican. Our solutions to this problem must transcend partisan posturing and drive change that will tear down the walls standing between our digitally illiterate neighbors and long-term economic security.