The Future of Virtual Schooling: Who will be Left Behind

 

The above map shows the whole United States and its various counties and their access to highspeed broadband internet. The counties in red have 0 providers offering quality internet services, yellow means 1 provider and those very sparse areas of green represent 3 or more choices. I believe that this map tells a grim story about the future of virtual schooling as we move into a second wave of the coronavirus. For one, many students who live in these massive swaths of red might be completely unable to attend school virtually, without a reliable internet connection they will be forced to either receive a far worse virtual education or risk the chance of contracting the virus and being forced home for 2 weeks in addition to whatever negatives the virus itself brings. However, this issue doesn't exist just for the students who have no access to the internet, but even those that have access but that access is only provided by one internet service provider. Due to changes in the law like Net Neutrality, many internet service providers started to implement data caps (setting a limit on how much data you can download and charging a premium if you go over that limit) as a way to increase profit. What this means for students in those yellow counties is that if they and their families are heavy data users in their free time, their schooling could be greatly affected by the lost of high speed internet.

As schools continue to press for students coming back to the classroom for various reasons, they also are making sure to continue to offer virtual education to students who don't feel comfortable returning, I believe this is an important and necessary option but I worry that schools will begin to neglect the online student body as students return to the classroom. One solution I've heard for this problem is the instillation of a virtual school administration that's sole focus in on the virtual student bodies. I have heard of school districts like Rochester for instance have a virtual principle for their district that handles all issues and changes that come for their virtual schooling even as students are returning to their classrooms. Ultimately, we need to stress that both of these options will provide an equal level of education to the student and work to make that a reality.