Community WIFI is critical for our little City of Lake Worth: For kids and public school students, the Internet is a bright, safe place.

Who do you think wrote this quote?

“Providing internet access for our young students, many of whom don’t have computers at home will go a long way to helping raise our struggling schools’ grade rankings. This, in turn helps to attract more families to buy into our neighborhoods and invest in Lake Worth.”

Where did this quote come from? Find out below.

We learned last week from School Board member Erica Whitfield that one of the big things holding back our students and young people is no access to the Internet at home (scroll down or use this link to learn more). Dr. Epps, the new principal at Lake Worth High School, confirmed this as well.

Whitfield explained, for example, Guatemalan children are really smart! These kids perform very well in mathematics but lag behind in other skills like language and social sciences. Having the Internet available at home would further social assimilation and bolster what they are learning in public school.

That is IF these kids show up at school at all.

Many Guatemalan parents and others in immigrant communities — out of fear due to rumors and unverified news reports — are keeping their children out of public schools. And remember, who is teaching the older Guatemalan population how to speak English? It’s their kids! Much of the fear in our immigrant communities can be ramped down with education. Young children and teenagers learning the facts about immigration policy and then spreading the word in their neighborhood.

Palm Beach County public school teachers can only do so much. But imagine a teacher giving a student or a group of students an Internet assignment overnight? These kids could come back the next day and teach their teacher a thing or two about how to teach Guatemalan children. Maybe these kids will have other ideas, like instead of being taught how to hold a spoon or fold a napkin, come up with a lesson plan to teach their Guatemalan parents how to communicate with a deputy or police officer.

Now back to community WIFI in the
City of Lake Worth.

Do you remember this news from last November about the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and City of Lake Worth event at the Casino called “Destination Lake Worth: Investment and Development in Lake Worth”?

Click on image to enlarge:

“Developers, Property Owners, Commercial Realtors and Business Owners” expect investment
in our children and schools as well.

This meeting was targeted to property owners and potential investors to let them know Lake Worth is “open for business” and presented reasons why investment in the City is a good idea whose time has come. Here is an excerpt from the meeting last year, “Destination Lake Worth”:

“[T]he CRA is working toward establishing a WiFi system that will be part of the City’s infrastructure and will utilize electric poles throughout the CRA district as a way to bridge the ‘digital divide’ for those with challenges accessing the Internet.”

Remember the quote at the beginning of this blog post, the question, “Who do you think wrote this?”

Here is the entire quote, which includes the excerpt, from a comment left on this blog:

The CRA has budgeted this year for the WIFI program and has partnerships already in place with the School Board, Palm Beach State College, Palm Beach County and our Electric Utility just to name a few of the major players.
     A few missing pieces remain such as fiber optic cable run to public facilities (schools) in order to triangulate signals for full coverage. Real possibilities for this program to take off this budget year.
     Providing internet access for our young students, many of whom don’t have computers at home (and with this program will) will go a long way to helping raise our struggling schools’ grade rankings. This, in turn helps to attract more families to buy into our neighborhoods and invest in Lake Worth.
     Please encourage your elected officials to support this effort.

Chip Guthrie
Member, Lake Worth CRA

Now it’s up to you.

Start by contacting your local elected leaders, the mayor and commissioners here in the City of Lake Worth. Tell them you support community WIFI for children, students, and others who live in at-risk neighborhoods. And then ask these elected’s who they think “up the chain” can help too, like County commissioners and representatives in the Florida House and Senate.

And then maybe some time soon, students and children that need help in our City of Lake Worth will be able to contact their elected leaders on their own, all by themselves, using the Internet.

With training, instruction, and the teachers in our public schools, the Internet and community WIFI won’t be a dark, dangerous place after all.