$65 Billion For Better Internet Across The US

Reliable internet isn’t a given for many rural students. Help is on the way. [View this email online]( [NPR]( Elissa Nadworny/NPR Happy Sunday, Elissa here! I’m recently back from the Arizona desert, where, along with producer Sequoia Carrillo, I visited students struggling with poor internet connections on the Navajo Nation Reservation. One of the students I met was Faylene Begay, a single mother of four studying health occupations. When the pandemic forced her classes online, she didn’t have home internet. And fighting to find the internet she needed turned out to be too much: At the end of the term, Begay dropped out of school. For under-connected students like Begay, help is on the way. On Monday, President Biden signed an infrastructure package that includes $65 billion for broadband access, aimed at improving internet service in rural areas, including tribal communities. Of that, $2 billion is set aside for the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, a federal grant program. "This is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pour in this much money," says Christopher Ali, who studies internet access at the University of Virginia. He's hopeful the infrastructure law will help reframe the way we think about the internet. "It's no longer a luxury, but let's start thinking about it as infrastructure, as essential as a paved road or a sewer system." Experts say getting good internet to rural communities may take a while. The challenge now lies in implementing programs at the state and local level, and maintaining them once they're established. As for Faylene Begay, she’s now re-enrolled, taking classes like pre-calculus, biology and chemistry. Her school, Diné College, a tribal college on the reservation, provided her with a free Wi-Fi hotspot, and she finally got a home internet connection, though neither option is particularly strong. She still struggles with the internet, but she’s so grateful to be back in school. "This is my reality," she says, "I've been fighting to be in college for so long." You can [read & listen to the full story here](. And you can follow me on Twitter [@ElissaNadworny]( [Read More Here]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Now, let’s get into some news this week… '1619 Project' journalist says Black people shouldn't be an asterisk in U.S. history. Students across the country have embraced the ideas contained in the work. But there's also been [a backlash]( by conservatives who have vowed to keep the 1619 Project out of classrooms — including threats that have been made against Nikole Hannah-Jones personally. [Listen to Jones’ interview here.]( — [NPR Fresh Air]( Pandemic or no, kids are still getting — and spreading — head lice. Like the coronavirus, lice depend on human sociability. Unfortunately, the measures that many reopened schools have taken to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 — masks, hand-washing, vaccination — do little to deter the spread of the head louse. However, physical distancing, such as spacing desks 3 feet apart, should be helping, if it's actually happening. [Read more here.]( — [Rae Ellen Bichell]( Kaiser Health News Harvard's 148-year-old student newspaper gets its first Latina president. Raquel Coronell Uribe, a history and literature major from Miami, will become the Harvard Crimson's first Latinx president in the student newspaper's 148-year history. She takes the helm in January. [Read more here.]( — [Joe Hernandez]( NPR News Desk Reporter When a Hyundai is also the family home. To keep their three kids in a sought-after public school district, one family sleeps in a car in the parking lot of a Pennsylvania Walmart while the parents work the overnight shift at the store. [Read more here.]( — [Chloe Nouvelle]( WLVR Reporter LA Johnson/NPR And before you go, check out the latest episode of Students’ Podcast! What makes you want to keep listening to a podcast? Anya Steinberg, winner of NPR’s first ever College Podcast Challenge, told us about how she created her award-winning podcast about finding her biological father. [Listen here.]( See you next week. --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Find a Station]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Facebook]( [Twitter]( What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [npred@npr.org](mailto:npred@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Politics, Code Switch and more! 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