Stark disparities between computer and internet access in Lynn and surrounding communities can be erased with public-private partnerships and innovative ideas, says a newly-released report.
North Shore residents are either well-equipped or technology-poor when it comes to meeting COVID-19 demands for ready access to computers and the internet for learning and work communication, according to the Foundation’s “Striving for Digital Equity” report.
“Across Essex County, one out of every five households lacks a basic computer. A similar number — 59,000 households, with around 160,000 people — live without fixed Broadband,” stated the report.
Computer and internet access, including Broadband availability, cuts across economic and ethnic lines, concluded the report.
“Latino residents are twice as likely to lack Broadband access, compared to their white, non-Latino neighbors,” it added.
It singled out Saugus as a community where Latino residents have below-average rates of Broadband access, “despite living alongside non-Latino white families with high access rates.”
Fewer than 70 percent of Lynn residents own a desktop or laptop computer compared to 92 percent of Marblehead residents.
Caleb Dolan, outgoing executive director of the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) Massachusetts charter schools, helped launch KIPP’s Lynn schools and told report authors that remote learning is tough for adolescents.
“Privacy is a particular challenge for adolescents. Many kids feel anxious if they’re on video because they want to control the image they present of their lives. And this anxiety can be magnified for kids whose housing conditions are particularly strained,” Dolan said in the report.
Highlighting students’ remote learning access and senior residents’ access to online social connection, including family members and organized social activities, the report found 76 percent of Lynn children have Broadband access and 56 percent of older Lynn residents have Broadband access.
Nearly nine out of every 10 Lynnfield residents own a computer and have wire Broadband access. Broadband access is slightly lower in Nahant and Swampscott where almost 84 percent of residents have access.
More than eight out of 10 Saugus residents have computer access but barely 80 percent are wired to Broadband. Computer and Broadband access drops in Peabody with 78 percent of residents owning a desktop or laptop and 71 percent wired to Broadband. Three-quarters of Salem’s residents are wired to Broadband and 79 percent own a laptop or desktop computer.
“School folks who identified the hundreds of students that lacked internet access and worked with Comcast to get a starter program set up,” the report quoted Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll.
The report points out collaborative ways to get equipment and access to area residents who don’t own computers or have Broadband access.
Universal Broadband can be provided through municipally-owned fiber optic lines and, stated the report, it may be possible to provide universal access through expanded public WI-FI hotspots.
Public-private partnerships can be formed to provide money to subsidize account costs associated with obtaining internet access.
“Tech companies enjoying record growth may be eager to collaborate on high-profile equipment donations and other approaches that meet community needs while demonstrating corporate commitment to the social good,” the report said.
“The city of Boston runs a digital equity fund, distributing grants that help young people, seniors, and immigrant communities gain access to digital resources. Essex County could do something similar.”
ECCF, Tufts University, the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life and The Center for State Policy Analysis supported the report.
