The Final Mile By Sean Rickert, Superintendent Pima USD, ARSA Executive Board It is only a mile from Madison Square to Union Square in New York City, and in 1880 this stretch of Broadway was one of the first electrically lighted streets in America and the world. A generation later in 1902 it was dubbed the Great White Way and the brilliance of the many illuminated signs captured the imagination of visitors from around the world. Fast-forward half a century and the brilliance and prosperity associated with electrification had permeated most of the western world, but access was not equitably distributed. By 1934 nearly nine out of every ten farms in France and Germany had electricity while nine in ten American farms were still without. The energy which drove the many innovations of the Roaring Twenties was enriching and enlivening much of America, but for many that prosperity was many miles away. Similarly, in 2020 access to prosperity is closely connected to a community or an individual’s ability to connect with the World Wide Web. The dot-com expansion of the nineties opened doors for much of America and the world. Internet connectivity enhanced many aspects of people’s lives. Economically, supply chains were opened encouraging productivity and innovation. Culturally, barriers to the global exchange of ideas were eradicated, and recipes, ideas and fashions spread at record speed. Socially, people became connected in many new ways regardless of geography. Perhaps most importantly the ability to learn about anything and everything has been opened to those with access. For the last thirty years access to the internet has become the central measure of sophistication and affluence. Those with access are ahead of those who lack access in terms of their ability to achieve on almost every standard. The most important and effective of the New Deal programs was the Rural Electrification Administration, or REA, authorized by President Roosevelt to address the inequities created by limited access to electrification. Within six years Page 3 of implementation the 90% of American farms without electricity had been transformed to less than half, and a decade later almost all were connected to the grid. This transformation also introduced two important new quasi-governmental institutions -- the cooperative and the public benefit (or service) corporation. In the name of the public welfare infrastructure was extended, resources were allocated and important services found their way into every corner of America. The resultant economic expansion made America the greatest nation in human history. Now we are faced with a similar challenge. Internet access has become virtually universal, but there remain pockets where access is limited or lacking. Internet access can range from 10 megabytes per second (Mbps) to download and 1 Mbps to upload on a dial-up access to 1 Gigabyte per second (1G) down and up on a fiber-optic connection. The average American internet access speed is 55 megabytes per second (Mbps). In Arizona average access speed is much slower at 36 Mbps. While we have seen dramatic improvements in rural access, the challenge with technology continues to be keeping up with constantly moving goalposts. The goals articulated four years ago, for greater access at the 25Mbps/3Mbps standard fails to recognize that being future ready looks more like 100Mbps/100Mbps, a standard most of the nation and almost all of rural American is far from reaching. The tools exist to move rural Arizona from where we are today to the standard needed to ensure all children have access at home to the tools required to access a quality twenty-first century education. First, the technology exists. We have identified tools that will enable the establishment of a network of fiber linked nodes capable of reaching all the households within a seven-mile radius. Within each home access points can be installed capable of providing 100Mbps/100Mbps access to wireless devices. Second, programs exist to provide the funding to erect the network. (continued on page 15) “Stronger Together!”
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