California DOE Awards $27 Million to 227 Schools to Improve Internet Connections

The California Department of Education (DOE) awarded almost $27 million in Broadband Infrastructure Improvement Grant (BIIG) funds Wednesday to 227 of the state’s public schools. The California Legislature approved BIIG funding in June to help recipient schools improve their broadband Internet connections so they would be capable of administering the state-mandated online Smarter Balanced Field Test to students in the third through eighth grades and high school juniors. “These state grants provide the critical last step needed to connect an additional 63,000 students to the state education network that will give them access to technology, which will prepare them for college and careers, and let them take the new computer-based California assessments,” state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a news release. The DOE selected the recipients from a list of more than 300 schools identified as having the most problematic Internet connections. Thirty-two of the recipient schools are in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Other major city school districts receiving funding are Oakland and San Diego, the state DOE said.