Dive Brief:

• President Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure plan, a central component to his presidential campaign, includes a proposal for developing high-speed internet connectivity across all rural parts of the country. Evan Marwell, the CEO of EducationSuperHighway, states that the move is necessary for the "more than 3,700 K-12 schools, [with] 79 percent of them in rural and small towns, lack[ing] access," to Internet and digital learning opportunities, reports eSchool News. 
• A 2016 report from the Federal Communications Commission highlighted the extent to which rural communities, and the schools that are located there, are left behind. 23.4 million Americans, or 39% of the nation's rural population, lack access to basic fixed broadband service — defined as 25 megabits per second (Mbps) up/3 Mbps down. 
• At the same time, only 4% of the nation's urban populations lack access to the same basic Internet service, which means there is a significant digital divide between urban and rural areas. Trump's infrastructure plan aims to narrow this gap, which raises the potential to alter the K12 to college pipeline, so that more low-income minority students in closed off parts of the nation have access to necessary tools for college and beyond. 

Dive Insight:

Students that do not have access to the Internet both at home and in the classroom part of the — homework gap issue — may suffer from a competitive disadvantage throughout their lives, as effective use of technology is becoming not just a skill, but a necessity to be prepared the workforce. And, with greater numbers of schools adopting 1:1 policies, where each student must have some type of tablet or computer device in the K12 classroom, it's clear that equal access to Internet and technology has become a major factor in the path to college and student learning gaps. For schools that are struggling to offer their students technology in the classroom due to expensive data plans and poor broadband service infrastructure, Trump's proposal for connectivity in rural parts of the nation could have significant impact.

But as educators and local policymakers wait for the infrastructure plan to unfold, they can look toward other states and schools that have taken proactive measures in closing the digital divide. For instance, Montana's governor Steve Bullock signed a law this month that would provide $2 million toward offering broadband internet service to schools across the state. The law was a product of collaboration between government officials in the Office of Public Instruction, the state's school administrators, and group EducationSuperHighway.