Mayor Eric Adams, New York Metropolis Chief Expertise Officer (CTO) Matthew Fraser, New York Metropolis Public Colleges Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, T-Cell, Dell Applied sciences, and New York Yankees All Star Second Baseman, Jazz Chisholm, Jr., announce that 350,000 Ok-12 New York Metropolis Public Colleges college students will obtain new internet-enabled gadgets free of charge through the 2025-2026 faculty 12 months.
Photograph: Ed Reed/Mayoral Images Workplace
In right this moment’s digital world, entry to dependable know-how and high-speed web is a necessity. Sadly, far too many New York Metropolis college students don’t have this entry, which, in flip, creates boundaries to studying and profiting from alternatives.
To bridge the digital divide and supply all our college students with the know-how they should succeed — regardless of their zip code or revenue — this faculty 12 months, we’re offering 350,000 model new Chromebooks to New York Metropolis public faculty college students with LTE or 5G entry. These free gadgets can be distributed to college students at greater than 1,700 faculties to assist deliver them on a stage taking part in subject for tutorial success. That’s 350,000 alternatives to help future James Baldwins, Shirley Chisholms, or mayors of New York Metropolis within the making as a result of 350,000 college students will quickly possess the important instruments mandatory to achieve right this moment’s digital studying setting.
This can be a monumental funding in our younger folks’s potential and working-class households of our metropolis, and we’re utilizing knowledge to make sure that the Chromebooks are distributed in areas the place the necessity is best. These gadgets come preloaded with 5G web entry and academic applications so college students can proceed to study, make the most of distant alternatives, and apply for jobs and faculties. Our Chromebook initiative additionally replaces outdated gear that now not meets present tutorial and safety requirements and ensures that the nation’s largest faculty district stays forward of the curve.
And since we all know that too many households are nonetheless battling the price of residing and can’t at all times afford new, internet-enabled gadgets, we’re offering these gadgets to college students for FREE.
Earlier this 12 months, New York Metropolis introduced an settlement with T-Cell to turn into a serious wi-fi service to help metropolis operations. This settlement saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on city-issued cellular gadgets, and ensured we may pay for these Chromebooks and that college students have high-speed web no matter the place they dwell or how a lot their dad and mom earn — as a result of entry shouldn’t be decided by zip code or by your revenue.
This initiative builds on all the opposite initiatives our administration has launched to construct a greater future for our kids, together with elevated studying and math scores for public faculty youngsters, nation-leading dyslexia screenings for all college students, including 57 Gifted and Proficient applications to our public faculties, serving to practically 14,000 college students full work-based studying experiences for the 2024-2025 faculty 12 months via FutureReadyNYC, dramatically growing early childhood schooling enrollment to 150,000 youngsters throughout the town’s system, and investing $180 million to implement a complete class measurement discount plan that gives extra individualized care to college students, amongst different initiatives.
On the finish of the day, we would like our younger folks to have all of the instruments they deserve and the know-how they should go so far as their desires will take them. Investing in our college students is vital as we proceed to attempt for a stronger, fairer, and extra inexpensive metropolis.
