Yankees star Jazz Chisholm Jr. (at mic) joined Mayor Eric Adams, DOE Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos and others to announce Sept. 8 that 350,000 NYC public faculty college students will obtain free Chromebooks this yr.
Photograph Emily Swanson
Mayor Eric Adams introduced Monday on the Bronx’s DeWitt Clinton Excessive Faculty that 350,000 college students in 1,700 public colleges citywide will obtain free, internet-enabled Chromebooks all through 2025-2026 to assist tackle digital inequity amongst New York Metropolis youth.
The mayor was joined by Colleges Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, Chief Expertise Officer Matthew Fraser, Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro and Yankees star Jazz Chisholm Jr. to announce what Adams referred to as a “monumental investment” in college students’ current and future success.
The brand new Chromebooks — a few of which got to DeWitt Clinton college students after the announcement — will include T-Cell LTE or 5G entry, so college students can use them even in locations with out wi-fi entry.
The Bronx is especially affected by an absence of technological assets in properties. Greater than 22% of Bronx households shouldn’t have dwelling web, and roughly 1 in 3 lack entry to a pc, based on a July report by the Heart for an City Future.
Adams stated he and different adults shortly realized through the pandemic that many college students didn’t have the mandatory instruments for distant studying. “We were telling [students] to go online, but they did not have devices, and they did not have access to high-speed broadband,” he stated.
Beneath the brand new initiative, Adams stated, “Our success will no longer be determined by ZIP code — it must be determined by whether you are a New York City resident, period.”
Some DeWitt Clinton Excessive Faculty college students acquired their free Chromebooks after the mayor’s announcement.Photograph Emily Swanson
Adams stated the Chromebooks will assist exchange outdated units presently utilized in some colleges and can guarantee college students nonetheless have expertise entry regardless of the brand new statewide ban on cell telephones through the faculty day.
“We may have taken away cell phones during the day, but you got Chromebooks for the entire day,” he stated.
As for web entry, the city-funded Huge Apple Join program already supplies free web at NYCHA buildings, and Adams stated it’s going to quickly develop to different low-income housing. The brand new Chromebook distribution is in partnership with T-Cell, which already companions with town to supply broadband to metropolis companies, and Dell Applied sciences.
Aviles-Ramos stated town will likely be “working in phases” to make sure the Chromebooks are first given to those that want them most.
She stated precedence will go to varsities utilizing units which might be greater than 5 years outdated, college students in short-term housing, high-poverty colleges (outlined as colleges with no less than 86% of households on the poverty degree), new colleges and colleges which have submitted functions to obtain new units.
Chisholm Jr., whose nonprofit basis helps younger individuals achieve baseball and within the classroom, grew up in Florida and the Bahamas however apparently felt at dwelling at DeWitt Clinton.
“This reminds me of where I grew up,” he stated.
The All-Star second baseman stated he has visited a number of colleges all through his two years as a New York Yankee. “I love giving back,” he stated.
DeWitt Clinton college students additionally celebrated the free units. Senior William June instructed the group that many college students presently battle to do homework and sort essays on their telephones, which are sometimes their solely internet-enabled units.
The brand new Chromebooks will assist college students be taught accountability and “level the playing field for everyone,” stated June. “Laptops don’t simply improve our lecture rooms, they improve alternatives. They improve futures. And if we’re being actual, they make homework just a bit much less painful.
