In this trying time, one of the issues that has become clear is that proper fiber-optic to the home broadband infrastructure could be helping our community in many ways and we don't have it. In fact, I've been talking about the need for the schools to support a Publicly Owned Fiber-Optic network with Greg Baker, and others, for years now. There are several recent events where a public fiber network would have enabled digital learning days and saved the community millions. In fact, by state law, in order to have digital learning days, the schools have to ensure that all students have adequate connections. Only a county-wide publicly owned network can do this.
In the school's most recent COVID-19 release they claim that, it is a "Goal: To Develop innovative ways to support ongoing student learning. And that they will, "Develop Team Tech Delivery to ensure all Bellingham Public Schools families 1) have a computer at home to support student learning, and 2) have internet access." However, as I've said, we've been talking to them about this for years and the school's tech director Kurt Gazow has always ignored it. Why did we wait to even talk about this until now? Didn't they just raise our taxes to support new technology? Are they just going to give this tax money to the big telecoms for inadequate connections instead of supporting a more equitable permanent solution like public fiber? 
By state law, in order to have digital learning days, like we should be able to by now, every student needs to have a basic internet connection. The speeds defined by the corrupt FCC at an inadequate 25/3 Mbps are not up to the task and the big telecom low-income connections are virtually worthless. Our students need robust connections of at least 50 Mbps symmetrical, like low-income students enjoy in most communities where they already have public fiber networks. 
Plus we can't guarantee that everyone will have good access by just giving money to the big telecoms. The city, and charitable organizations, have tried that in the past and the big telecoms have responded with piss poor connections. How do we know, because we've been testing the connections. A $110 a month Comcast connection may run Zoom or Skype, but it's choppy and the audio fidelity is poor. It also sometimes freezes and there is often lag. Yes, on a connection you're paying 13.5 times more for than in most of the rest of the developed world. Why, because no matter how fast your download speed is, Comcast restricts your upload speed to only about 10Mbps at best. Yes, Zoom and Skype are amazing and do their best to compensate for these poor big telecom connections, but ultimately they are only as good as the connections they are hooked up to. We know that we can't support more than 1 connection at a time on ours. So don't expect both parents to be able to effectively work from home at the same time during this crisis if they have to be part of a Skype or Zoom meeting.  
Other educators and professors have reported to us that their connections are so poor that they can't really do Zoom or Skype at all and are essentially resorting to 1995 style communications methods. Some of these reports are from Fairhaven! Better connections simply don't exist in many of our neighborhoods, even if someone is willing to pay for them.    
All of this in 2020, when the advantages to the schools of having a publicly owned fiber-optic network were clear even before the crisis. Again, our schools could literally be open right now in a way that didn't spread deadly disease if we had a public fiber network and just about everyone could be working. So while students in Chatanooga, TN are routinely looking at 4K microscope slides, even on their low-income connections, via fiber, our schools didn't even bother looking into it until this crisis and will probably just back some big telecom only solution in the end. Since we've tried to meet with them many times I wonder why. Maybe you should ask them. I have, of course, done so again. Time for the school board, Kurt Gazow, and Greg Baker to read "Fiber" by Susan Crawford and talk to experts in their community, that don't work for the big telecoms and aren't biased. That means they'll have to talk to individuals and organizations that aren't associated with TAG, and don't include our COB IT and Public Works Directors. Our community deserves better. A county-wide fiber network is estimated to cost only $50 million. About half of what the new high school did, and it would last longer.