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Pandemic Exposes Huge 'Digital Divide' In LA Schools
Los Angeles Unified supplied iPads to students to take new digital state tests. (Ben Brayfield for KPCC)
The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced millions of Southern California students home from school.
Still, Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised to keep funding public schools so long as they use options like distance learning or online education to continue students' education from home.
But earlier this week, leaders of the state's largest school district admitted that, so far, results from this sudden pivot to online or distance instruction have been mixed.
Why? "A great big digital divide," said Los Angles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner.
The divide has always been there, but the coronavirus shutdown has laid bare in a particularly stark way.
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