Billings, other Montana schools begin paying for some students’ home internet amid remote shift

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    Montana (Billings Gazette) — Update textbooks, fix computers, beef up cleaning supplies — all were part of schools’ usual supply and to-do list during summers. While the COVID-19 pandemic has increased needs in some existing categories, it’s also cracked the door on a new supply for schools to provide — internet access at students’ homes.

Several school leaders in Montana have put small-scale plans in place to address what they view as a long-simmering equity issue. Public school districts in Billings, Missoula, and Great Falls all began or will begin to pay for some students’ home internet access.

Home internet access has long been a priority for those who champion the “homework gap” — a documented problem where students who lack home internet access struggle more in school. About 15% of students in the U.S. don’t have high speed internet access at home, according to a 2020 update from the Pew Research Center.

During the pandemic, that gap leapt from homework into daily instruction. Districts like Billings also offered paper packet work, but it was often handed out in large batches without the opportunity for daily feedback from a teacher. Some research has also indicated that smartphone internet access isn’t a good substitute for students.

Billings has paid for fewer than 20 families’ internet access so far at a cost of about $6,000. In Missoula, that figure is higher; the district paid for about about 125 hot spots that cost about $21,000. Great Falls plans to deploy hot spots beginning in August or September.

The superintendents of the three districts were part of a joint effort with internet service providers during the spring to examine options for getting internet to students.

“By law we have to provide an education, and ethically it’s the right thing to do,” said Billings superintendent Greg Upham. If students don’t have internet access, “I think that creates inequity.”

That, like all line-items in an education budget, is limited by the available funding. Should that number and its associated cost mushroom, it becomes more difficult to justify alongside other more entrenched educational priorities.

Upham returned to a frequent talking point about finances; that state legislators need to update the school funding formula to reflect schools’ current needs with dedicated funding.

Schools can offer technology levies to local voters, asking for more tax money that would directly support school tech efforts. In Great Falls, the last one offered failed.

Great Falls Superintendent Tom Moore took Upham’s reasoning a step farther.

“Maybe it’s a larger conversation for our communities to have about how we provide internet access for all people,” he said, citing public WiFi areas in major cities.

While Montana schools plan to have most students back in buildings this fall, at least some families will opt for remote learning for health reasons, likely continuing the possibility of schools providing home internet access. National surveys show that parents want kids to get back to school, but have significant safety concerns during the pandemic.

Moore believes that the pandemic could turbo-charge what had been a “long, slow uphill grind” toward computer-based learning. He cited existing efforts like the Montana Digital Academy, and said that local schools may be expected to provide more remote services.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy; teaching online requires a different skill set and toolbox.

“If public schools can’t do that quickly and in a robust and proficient way, then parents are going to go elsewhere,” Moore said.

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