There have been a series of articles and press releases re what LCPS has been doing to support LFH. One area that continues to be confusing is how many LCPS students don’t have online access to LFH. This press release below doesn’t clear up the confusion in that it says a lot of access tools such as laptops have been distributed, but some schools still have a schedule of future distributions.
In one part of the article a reference is made to 20% of students not having access to LFH resources. Maybe that refers to what previously was the case? If so, we don’t have a % on the current access to LFH resources, at least not in this press release.
As of April 15, most elementary schools reported 70 percent of needed technology had been picked up, and four schools – Monte Vista Elementary, Las Cruces High, Doña Ana Elementary and Camino Real Middle – had pick-up schedules slated for this week.
After surveying families and existing inventory, each school determined there were enough devices to meet the needs of students who were without access to technology at home.
So something is happening to address the situation of “have nots” for LCPS learning from home. Also of note: Comcast has received funding from the city of Las Cruces to provide more access for have nots.
According to district officials, internet access codes from Comcast were provided to teachers and students this week and will be paid for using the emergency funding from the City of Las Cruces. The cost of the service is covered through the next six months. Families living outside of the Comcast service area will be provided with paper copies of instructional materials. Additional support systems are in place to support special education and Spanish language learners.
How many are receiving the “paid for” Comcast services, out of the total teacher and student community? How many families living outside of Comcast service are there? And perhaps Comcast could be donating some of the added service to have nots?
To be fair, this is all being done in a rapidly evolving social and economic environment, and there’s an overwhelming amount of catch up to be achieved. It’s understandable that making the needed changes, and doing the needed catchup. is going to take some time. Not everything is going to go smoothly, and some problems and bottlenecks may prove intractable.
But it also begs the question of preparing schools for an extended pandemic, or for the pandemics to come, and to somehow provide equal access to have nots for education resources at home. We’ve apparently learned 20%, or is it more, haven’t previously had affordable access. Needless to say that isn’t close to what it should be for any sort of Normal Operating Procedure for a public school system serving all students.
Also, why would LCPS have huge numbers of laptops etc sitting around that haven’t been previously distributed? Perhaps there are reasonable explanations that might allay some of the concerns for have-not’s educational resources. And we simply don’t know what those are, admittedly, if so.
Regardless, perhaps now those affordable access problems can be addressed in a more comprehensive fashion, that provides a stable long lasting answer to the affordable access equations.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Las-Cruces-Public-Schools-Remote-Learning-Going-Well-KRWG.pdf”]