
Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson announced the state will give $10 million for WiFi access points for students, who are learning online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Hutchinson, the money, which comes from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief fund via the CARES Act, will be allocated to schools based on per-student population.
According to the governor, the funds will provide nearly 20,000 devices, which will be WiFi hot spots, with up to two years of high speed unlimited data and will not cost families or students anything.
The governor says AT&T and T-Mobile have signed up as vendors with a possible third vendor pending announcement.
Governor Hutchinson: allocates $10m from CARES Act education relief fund for WiFi access points across #Arkansas. 20,000 devices with 24mis high speed unlimited data for students
— Dawn Scott (@dawnerscott) July 27, 2020
There were 824 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 39,447 since the pandemic began. 6,674 of those cass are active. There have been 408 new COVID-19 fatalities with seven new deaths reported on Monday. Hospitalizations are up nine to 489 across the state.