LRSD Students to Receive Free Wireless Devices from Sprint
Much of the homework given out to high school students requires some form of internet access to complete. The problem with that is that not all students have reliable internet access in their homes.
Some only have access via their phone and others have none at all. This gap in access for kids has been dubbed the homework gap.
Bridging the gap for Arkansas students has been a priority for Gov. Asa Hutchinson. This effort folds into his larger effort to enhance coding education. The state's efforts have attracted the attention of Sprint's 1Million Project and they have pledged nearly 2,000 wireless devices to Arkansas high schools. Those devices are packaged with 3GB high-speed data per month for free for the duration of each each student's high school years.
The Little Rock School District applied to be a part of the program and Sprint chose them, in part due to the success of Hutchinson's Computer Science Initiative. Central High School, Hall High School, JA Fair High School, McClellan High School and Parkview High School will receive a total of 1,900 tablets.
Students are as excited as lawmakers and educators about the project. Regan Young and Jordan Harris are both 14-year-old students at Cloverdale Middle School and plan to attend McClellan High School where the announcement was made.
"I think this is going to be a good thing for us and help us very well," Harris says. "I'm not even gonna lie, my internet at home is poor and sometimes I have to share my technology. As soon as I get this new iPad and I can use it for homework and stuff like that, I'll be straight."
Even students who have access worry about their peers whom lack access.
"I know a lot of my classmates, they don't have access to the internet," Young says. "So it's good for everybody to get it."
Some students like Harris only have access via a smartphone and getting a tablet with access is a game-changer. Jon Blitz, Sprint’s President for the South Central Region, says that donating old devices at Spring stores is a great way for the public to help out with the program, because some of the funds from donations go to the 1Million Project.
For more information on the project, visit Sprint's website or follow Sprint on social media.