Mayor Eric Adams, New York Metropolis Chief Expertise Officer (CTO) Matthew Fraser, New York Metropolis Public Faculties Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, T-Cell, Dell Applied sciences, and New York Yankees All Star Second Baseman, Jazz Chisholm, Jr., announce that 350,000 Ok-12 New York Metropolis Public Faculties college students will obtain new internet-enabled units without spending a dime in the course of the 2025-2026 faculty 12 months.
Photograph by Ed Reed/Mayoral Images Workplace
In at present’s digital world, entry to dependable know-how and high-speed web is a necessity. Sadly, far too many New York Metropolis college students don’t have this entry, which, in flip, creates boundaries to studying and profiting from alternatives.
To bridge the digital divide and supply all our college students with the know-how they should succeed — regardless of their zip code or revenue — this faculty 12 months, we’re offering 350,000 model new Chromebooks to New York Metropolis public faculty college students with LTE or 5G entry. These free units shall be distributed to college students at greater than 1,700 faculties to assist convey them on a degree taking part in subject for tutorial success. That’s 350,000 alternatives to assist future James Baldwins, Shirley Chisholms, or mayors of New York Metropolis within the making as a result of 350,000 college students will quickly possess the important instruments essential to reach at present’s digital studying atmosphere.
It is a monumental funding in our younger folks’s potential and working-class households of our metropolis, and we’re utilizing knowledge to make sure that the Chromebooks are distributed in areas the place the necessity is biggest. These units come preloaded with 5G web entry and academic applications so college students can proceed to be taught, reap the benefits of distant alternatives, and apply for jobs and schools. Our Chromebook initiative additionally replaces outdated gear that now not meets present educational and safety requirements and ensures that the nation’s largest faculty district stays forward of the curve.
And since we all know that too many households are nonetheless combating the price of dwelling and can’t all the time afford new, internet-enabled units, we’re offering these units to college students for FREE.
Earlier this 12 months, New York Metropolis introduced an settlement with T-Cell to change into a significant wi-fi service to assist metropolis operations. This settlement saved taxpayers thousands and thousands of {dollars} on city-issued cellular units, and ensured we might pay for these Chromebooks and that college students have high-speed web no matter the place they stay or how a lot their dad and mom earn — as a result of entry shouldn’t be decided by zip code or by your revenue.
This initiative builds on all the opposite initiatives our administration has launched to construct a greater future for our kids, together with elevated studying and math scores for public faculty kids, nation-leading dyslexia screenings for all college students, including 57 Gifted and Proficient applications to our public faculties, serving to almost 14,000 college students full work-based studying experiences for the 2024-2025 faculty 12 months by way of FutureReadyNYC, dramatically rising early childhood schooling enrollment to 150,000 kids throughout the town’s system, and investing $180 million to implement a complete class dimension discount plan that gives extra individualized care to college students, amongst different initiatives.
On the finish of the day, we would like our younger folks to have all of the instruments they deserve and the know-how they should go so far as their goals will take them. Investing in our college students is essential as we proceed to try for a stronger, fairer, and extra inexpensive metropolis.
