Fundraising Goal Reached To Supply All OUSD Students With Computers, Internet
Bay City News Service
The city of Oakland, Oakland Unified School District, Oakland Public Education Fund and the non-profit organization Tech Exchange announced Wednesday that they have met their $12.5 million fundraising goal to supply all students in the district with computers and Internet access.
The fundraising campaign launched last Thursday with donation levels already nearing $2 million. On Friday, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey announced that he would commit $10 million to the campaign.
Mark Pincus, founder of the online and mobile gaming company Zynga, capped off the campaign by donating the final $700,000 required to meet the $12.5 million goal, according to city and district officials.
"The program created by OUSD and the city of Oakland will play a critical role in allowing students to be connected and develop the critical skills they will need to succeed and make a positive impact on the world," Pincus said.
The fundraising campaign was spurred by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic forcing students to learn and participate in class while at home. At the outset of the pandemic, roughly half of the district's 50,000 students lacked Internet access.
The district has since loaned more than 18,000 Google Chromebooks from its school inventories to students across the city, but some 5,000 students and their families still lack proper Internet access and computer technology.
"Once again, I am amazed and humbled by the generosity of these leaders of technology," district Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell said. "Like Jack Dorsey, (Pincus) saw the need for all Oakland's young people -- now more significant than ever -- to have technology at school and at home, to open them up to the world of information through the internet, and to become even more adept at using that technology."
The $12.5 million will allow the district and the city to provide roughly 25,000 students with a computer and Internet access for the upcoming school year.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has said the city and the district will require about $4 million annually to maintain that online education infrastructure. City and district officials have also expressed interest in adding more computers to classrooms and improving education technology for teachers.
"I am grateful to see our local tech entrepreneurs join the mission to close the digital divide in Oakland to ensure that every child in our city has access to the internet and a computer," Schaaf said.
More information about the fund can be found at oaklandedfund.org/digitaldivide.