Addressing the Homework Gap for Children of Color During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Conversation with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel

In this episode, we join Jessica Rosenworcel, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission and one of the nation’s leading advocates for closing the “homework gap,” a particularly cruel part of the digital divide that prevents 12 million children from having access to broadband at home. More than half of the nation’s public-school children – 27 million -- are children of color. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused the closures of schools for more than 40 million kids nationwide, highlights the risk that children of color will not have access to classroom instruction during these extended school closures. Commissioner Rosenworcel discusses the response of companies to the pandemic and makes suggestions for policy and legislative responses to the crisis.

The host for this episode is Clint Odom, NUL Senior Vice President of Policy & Advocacy.

From the National Urban League, For The Movement discusses persistent policy, social, and civil rights issues affecting communities of color.

Discussed in this episode:

National Urban League

ACT

African American

AT&T

Backhaul

Black

Black America

Black Girls Code

Broadband

African American

Carla Hayden

Children of Color

Charter

Comcast

Computers

Congress

Coronavirus

COVID-19

Data Caps

Digital Divide

Digital Economy

Digital Equity

Digital Infrastructure

Diversity

Emergency Power

eRate

FCC

FCC Open Meeting

Homework Gap

Internet

Kimberly Bryant

Last Mile

Library of Congress

Life in the Age of Coronavirus

Low Income

Marc Morial

Media

Mobile Hot Spots

National Plan

Networks

Online

Pandemic

President Trump

Remote Learning Environments

Rural

School Work

SAT

Senators

Stimulus

Title I

T-Mobile

Teachers

Telecommunications Act of 1996

Verizon

Video

Virtual Private Networks

WiFi

Wi-FI Routers

Contact and Follow:

Web: #ForTheMovement

Email: podcast@nul.org

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NULpolicy

Jessica Rosenworcel: Jessica.Rosenworcel@fcc.gov

Twitter: @JRosenworcel

Google Policy on Twitter: @googlepubpolicy @mschanellep

Marc’s Twitter: @MarcMorial

Clint’s Twitter: @ClintEOdom

Toni’s Twitter: @ToniWiley_1789