NYC Comptroller Releases Audit On Internet Speeds In City Schools
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a new audit about internet speeds in city school buildings Saturday, showing massive organizational glitches in department of education school technology.
As 1010 WINS' Roger Stern reports, the city drafted a plan for upgrading classroom broadband ten years ago -- but Stringer said Sunday that bandwidth which made sense in 2007 is no longer enough.
"It's pretty hard to engage a child when a video takes five minutes to load," he said.
The upgrade was to supposed to have included the ability for additional capacity increases, but the comptroller said his office's survey of middle schools showed that hasn't been happening.
"Half of respondents reported that internet speed did not meet their instructional needs," Stringer said.
Stringer added that the project had such little paperwork that it's feasibly impossible to know what's causing the problems.
In a statement sent to 1010 WINS, the DOE says the report "finds that every middle school already has high-speed internet connections and that the majority of middle schools are satisfied with their internet, and we're investing over $500 million through 2019 to further upgrade internet speeds in all our classrooms."
The statement also claims the department increased central oversight six years ago to manage technology projects "in the best interests of students, schools, and taxpayers."
"The DOE has previously announced a $520 million investment through the Capital Plan and City budget to increase network bandwidth and internet capacity for every school," the statement said, concluding "our goal is to create wireless capabilities in every part of school buildings, and provide 100 Mbps of internet connectivity in every building by 2019."
The infrastructure upgrades have already begun, according to the DOE.
