#OaklandUndivided to Announce on Friday $12M+ Plan to Connect all 50,000+ Oakland Public School Students - PreK through College - and Expand Vision to Close the Digital Divide for all Oaklanders
U.S. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and California Assemblymember Mia Bonta Will Join the #OaklandUndivided (#OU) Coalition in person Including Mayor Libby Schaaf, Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell, Students, Families, Educators, Community Partners, Local Elected Officials, and Signature Partners Amazon and Gilead Foundation
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Contact: John Sasaki
Communications Director
510-214-2080
john.sasaki@ousd.org
PRESS RELEASE
Oakland - On Friday, May 6, #OaklandUndivided, joined by local, state, and federal officials, will announce a new commitment to Oakland students and an expanded vision to close the digital divide for good - highlighting #OU as a model for California and the nation.
The commitment to ensure all 50,000+ Oakland public school students have home access to a computer, internet, and culturally competent tech support will be announced for the third straight year, thanks to the countless school-based staff, community-based organizations, city leaders, trusted institutions, and community members themselves. This coalition has created a $12 Million Plan, starting with a pair of $1M investments from signature partners Amazon and Gilead Foundation, and a $250,000 investment from The PG&E Corporation Foundation. Along with other philanthropic funders, this innovative public-private partnership has allowed Oakland to become eligible for $10 million worth of new computers and internet services for Oakland public school students through the federal Emergency Connectivity Fund.
#OaklandUndivided launched two years ago, shortly after the pandemic began as a partnership between Oakland Unified School District, The City of Oakland, Tech Exchange, The Oakland Public Education Fund, Oakland Promise, and more than 20 other community partners - including All City Council, BlocPower, Greenlining, Homies Empowerment, The Kapor Center, Latino Education Network, Oakland Housing Authority, The Oakland REACH, and the NAACP - to ensure that all Oakland public school students could access online learning. In the 2020-21 school year, #OaklandUndivided provided 29,000+ laptops, 10,000+ hotspots, and responded to 10,000+ requests for tech support, increasing home access for students from low-income backgrounds from just 12% pre-pandemic to 98% by the end of the 20-21 school year.
This year, #OaklandUndivided is expanding its impact to serve not only K-12 students, but also Pre-K students and families as well as college students from Oakland, to truly provide connection from cradle to career. City of Oakland Head Start, OUSD Pre-K, and many Bay Area colleges – Cal State East Bay, Mills College, Peralta Community College District, San Francisco State University , and UC Berkeley – are joining the #OaklandUndivided movement, committing to ensure home access for all of their students.
#OaklandUndivided will also announce expansion of long-term solutions to increase broadband across the city, building on City Council’s initial $7.7M investment of CARES Act funding in OakWiFi and the TownLink program to provide public wifi and digital literacy to residents across Oakland. A partnership with national non-profit EducationSuperhighway, which selected Oakland as its inaugural city for the "No Home Left Offline" campaign, has already connected six buildings serving low-income residents to Free Apartment Wi-Fi through their Apartment Connect program. EducationSuperHighway is also working to help Oakland residents enroll in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a new social benefit program created by President Biden's Infrastructure Law that provides all income-eligible families $30/month discounts on their internet for at least the next five years. Additionally, #OU partner BlocPower has set up its community-owned network in West Oakland to provide public internet to the surrounding community. Through these and additional partnerships, #OaklandUndivided seeks to connect 90% of the estimated 36,000 unconnected households in Oakland within 5 years.
State and national leaders CA Assemblymember Bonta, CDT Broadband Deputy Director Adams, U.S. FCC Commissioner Starks will join Mayor Schaaf, Superintendent Johnson-Trammell, members of the Oakland City Council and OUSD School Board, and the coalition on May 6 to highlight the vision and impact of #OaklandUndivided. This comes in addition to the Hechinger Report and Christian Science Monitor recently showcased #OaklandUndivided as a national model. Commissioner Starks will highlight Oakland’s efforts to expand internet access to more families by increasing enrollment in the Affordable Connectivity Program. Asm. Bonta will celebrate the advocacy of the #OU community coalition, which led to Oakland being selected as one of only three urban areas for the first phase of the historic $3.25B investment from SB 156. That investment will provide fiber for expanded broadband access in many of Oakland’s most unconnected neighborhoods - West Oakland, Fruitvale, and East Oakland.
Transformational gifts totalling more than $20M from more than 50 funding partners over the last two years, including Jack Dorsey’s initial $10M, have allowed our city to make bold commitments for educational equity. To see the full list of partners and endorsers as well as opportunities to learn more, volunteer, donate, or join the movement to keep #OaklandUndivided - please visit www.oaklandundivided.org.
WHAT: #OaklandUndivided Two Year Anniversary and Announcement to Expand Digital Access
WHEN: 1:00 p.m., Friday, May 6 (time for interviews starting at 12:30 p.m.)
WHERE: Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary, 960 10th Street (enclosed media parking available)
*For anyone who would like to watch virtually, please visit the #OaklandUndivided Facebook page at 1:00 p.m.: www.facebook.com/oaklandundivided
ABOUT OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
In California’s most diverse city, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is dedicated to creating a learning environment where “Every Student Thrives!” More than half of our students speak a non-English language at home. And each of our 80 schools is staffed with talented individuals uniting around a common set of values: Students First, Equity, Excellence, Integrity, Cultural Responsiveness and Joy. We are committed to preparing all students for college, career and community success.
To learn more about OUSD’s Full Service Community District focused on academic achievement while serving the whole child in safe schools, please visit ousd.org and follow us @OUSDnews.
