Mayor’s FY22 Budget Compared to Digital Equity in DC Education’s Asks
/Mayor’s FY22 Budget Compared to Digital Equity in DC Education’s Asks
June 2021 Mayor Bowser’s FY22 budget makes significant investments in DCPS for student and teacher devices, as well as technology support and school IT infrastructure. However, there is no mention of a citywide vision or plan to close the digital divide and ensure all residents have access to reliable, high quality internet.
Below we compare the mayor’s proposed budget to our January 2021 recommendations to the mayor.
1. Student Devices What we asked for: A 1:1 Student-Device Ratio :Mayor’s Proposal: $13.2 million to reach a 1:1 student-device ratio for grades 3-12 and 3:1 student-device ratio for grades PreK-2. Funded by federal COVID relief funds.
2. Teacher Devices What we asked for: A Computer for Every Teacher. Mayor’s Proposal: $5.7 million to ensure every teacher has an updated, dedicated device. Schools will receive teacher devices based on the number of teaching staff after accounting for centrally purchased staff devices in fall 2019 and recent modernization purchases. Funded by federal COVID relief funds.
3. Staffing for IT Support and Asset Management What we asked for: An improvement upon the current IT staffing ratio of 1 technician per 857 users, which is inadequate for day-to-day support and below industry standards; reduced burden on schools for supporting and managing technology. Mayor’s Proposal: $16.7 million for DCPS payment to OCTO for tech services (prior year payments were ~$10-11 million). This funding will provide 85 technicians for in-school tech support. New IT staffing ratio would be 1 technician per ~705 users. Details on OCTO technician responsibilities for school-level asset management not yet available, pending DCPS-OCTO service-level agreement finalization.
4. Tech Infrastructure What we asked for: Upgrades to all DC school building technology infrastructure to improve school internet connectivity and reliability; maintenance and update of Smartboards and other classroom technology. Mayor’s Proposal: $2.45 million (in capital budget) for school infrastructure upgrades, which would fund upgrades for 15 schools. Additionally, ~8 schools will receive IT infrastructure upgrades this summer. $1.5 million to refresh Smartboard/audio-visual technology in classrooms. Commentary: While it’s encouraging to see investments in updating school infrastructure, it is difficult to say the extent to which these investments will fully meet the needs for all schools, as we do not have access to OCTO assessments of school internet infrastructure and the age/condition of classroom technology at all schools. We believe an independent audit of the system network and individual school infrastructures could identify the likely numerous bottlenecks that cause slow and unreliable connectivity in our schools.
5. Digital Literacy Skill Building What we asked for: Trainings for families and school staff that are informed by user needs and learning styles. Mayor’s Proposal: DCPS’s Office of Teaching & Learning has started planning for staff training. Details not yet publicly available.
6. Universal Broadband Internet What we asked for: A roadmap (with milestones and dates) to universal broadband that would ensure adoption of high-speed, reliable home broadband service across all wards. Mayor’s Proposal: No mention in Mayor’s budget of a long-term plan or roadmap for universal broadband. OCTO’s budget includes $27 million for its Digital Inclusion Initiative “to purchase cellphones, laptops and tablets to support Devices for Residents” and to support OCTO’s Tech Together initiative.