Jason Swensen is a Deseret News staff writer on the Politics and the West team. He has won multiple awards from the Utah Society of Professional Journalists. Swensen was raised in the Beehive State and graduated from the University of Utah. He is a husband and father — and has a stack of novels and sports biographies cluttering his nightstand.
SALT LAKE CITY — This year, the Moab-based Grand County High School boys basketball team played a road game against Duchesne High — an approximately 300-mile round-trip bus ride.Other away games for the Red Devils included school bus travel from Moab to Draper and from Moab to Junction in Piute County, both about 200 miles away, one-way.
Those basketball trips with classmates likely made for some fun memories. But it's also likely that the student-athletes didn't get much homework done — at least for internet-dependent tasks on, say, school-issued Chromebook or tablet.It's not a unique dilemma.For many Utah kids living in rural communities, long school bus rides without reliable internet service are daily realities.Now, a bill being considered by the Utah Legislature may allow rural students to remain digitally connected during long road trips to ballgames or other school-sponsored activities.Sponsored by Rep. Tiara Auxier, R-Morgan, House Bill 462 would make state grants available to rural school districts to provide internet connectivity on school buses.Rural school kids, noted Auxier in her bill presentation this week to the House Education Committee, are often involved in multiple extracurricular activities. Their frequent round-trip school bus rides often take several hours, and students are returning home long after dark.The possible consequence? Missed homework and sleep-deprived kids."When I played sports, I could do my homework on the bus and get it done with a pencil and paper," Auxier said. "Now our kids don't have that same luxury because everything is online and submitted through Chromebooks."Auxier's bill would establish a voluntary, state-sponsored grant program for rural schools. Each participating high school would receive the funds needed to equip a limited number of school buses being utilized for long road trips with internet connectivity.The grant would pay for the equipment and the first year of associated expenses."The only schools that would be eligible the ones that were willing to take on the ongoing costs of staying connected," added Auxier.Working with the Utah Education and Telehealth Network , the bill would ensure that the students' Chromebooks would have filtering and password restrictions to prevent misuse and inappropriate web searches.And the kids would not have the ability to connect outside devices to the bus's wireless service."This will really help our kids," sai
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