How Does Remote Learning Work If Students Can’t Even Get Online? Census Data Show Major Cities Like Cleveland, Miami and Memphis Lag Behind in Basic Internet Access
Recent U.S. Census data reveals that Cleveland is now ranked as the most poorly connected major city in the country. This is concerning, especially considering the increased reliance on online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the data from the 2019 American Community Survey, nearly 31 percent of households in Cleveland do not have any internet access at home, not even through cell phones. This percentage is the highest among all cities with 100,000 or more households. In the previous year, Cleveland was ranked fourth among the worst-connected large cities.
Other cities such as Miami, Newark, and Memphis closely follow, with between 25 and 30 percent of households lacking internet access.
With approximately half of the nation’s school districts starting the school year online and the likelihood that online classes will continue to be part of the education system for the foreseeable future, internet connectivity has become vital for students to continue learning.
It is worth noting that there has been an overall improvement in the number of connected households across the country in recent years, as home internet access becomes more common. Five years ago, data from 2014 showed that almost 20 percent of households in cities with a population of 65,000 or more did not have internet access. This percentage dropped to about 12 percent this year.
In 2014, there were six large cities with higher rates of unconnected households compared to Cleveland’s rate of 30.7 percent in 2019. This is because many cities made significant progress in improving connectivity over the past five years, including Houston, New York, and Phoenix, which reduced their unconnected household rates by around 15 percentage points.
Unfortunately, Cleveland’s improvement rate was less than three percent, making it one of the cities with the lowest gains in connectivity among major cities over the five-year period. Only Las Vegas and Newark had worse improvement rates. Las Vegas’s small gains allowed other cities to surpass it, causing it to drop from the 28th to the 9th position among the worst-connected cities from 2014 to 2019.
Detroit and New Orleans, the two worst-connected major cities five years ago, significantly improved their connectivity rates by 13 or more percentage points and ranked fifth- and seventh-worst respectively in 2019.
Cleveland’s internet access deficit is approximately twice that of cities like Chicago (16.4 percent), Philadelphia (15.8 percent), and New York City (14.9 percent), which rank 17th, 19th, and 26th respectively.
The head of DigitalC, a nonprofit organization collaborating with the Cleveland school district to make internet access more accessible, expressed the urgency of addressing this issue. The organization plans to connect 10,000 homes with Cleveland school district students by May and all 38,000 district students by 2022.
The Cleveland school district, which had to postpone classes for three weeks this fall to transition to online learning, did not provide a comment regarding this matter. The district faced challenges in implementing online classes due to students’ lack of internet access and computers, causing it to fall behind other districts when Ohio schools closed in March due to the pandemic.
A representative of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, which has been assessing connectivity rankings for several years, pointed out that the recently released data only covers until 2019 and does not include any improvements made in response to the pandemic. Callahan emphasized the need for community leaders and policymakers to understand the extent of the digital divide and the efforts required to overcome it.
Overall, the insufficient internet access in Cleveland, highlighted by the recent data, underscores the urgency of bridging the digital divide, especially in light of the current circumstances where online connectivity is crucial for education.
According to him, the majority of households without internet access are not families with schoolchildren. He also mentioned that there is currently no demand for large quantities of hotspots for senior citizens.
The lack of internet access is also influenced by the poverty levels of residents. Families with lower income often cannot afford internet service.
Leon Wilson, from the Cleveland Foundation, stated that there is a direct relationship between poverty and the adoption of household broadband internet. He is involved in the Greater Cleveland Digital Equity Coalition, which was established to address connectivity issues during the pandemic. Wilson pointed out that as Cleveland’s poverty level has now surpassed Detroit’s, the same can be said for household broadband adoption.
Based on the 2019 American Community Survey data, Cleveland’s poverty rate is 30.8 percent, slightly higher than Detroit’s.
A chart from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance below illustrates that over one-third of households with an annual income below $20,000 have no internet access nationwide. However, this percentage significantly decreases as income increases. Once the income reaches $50,000 or more, only 10 percent of households are without internet access.
(National Digital Inclusion Alliance)
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