Sixty thousand Connecticut high school students will get laptops to help them participate in distance learning. The board of the state’s educational partnership with the Dalio Foundation approved the purchase of the computers on Tuesday.
The laptops will go to students in the state’s lowest performing school districts. Governor Ned Lamont says it’s part of the state’s effort to enable students, who cannot afford their own laptops, to participate in online learning during the COVID-19 shutdown.
“I love the fact that we are going to continue education in a new way. Students a new way of learning perhaps, teachers a new way of teaching.”
Lamont would like to encourage schools to continue the online learning during the summer months to make up for lost school time.
“Just so that when school starts again in the fall these kids aren’t four months behind, but we have given them a good chance to catch up.”
That decision is up to the school districts.
The board of the Partnership for Connecticut approved $24 million to purchase the 60,000 laptops from Dell. The laptops are to arrive and be distributed by the end of the month or early May.
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