Ensuring that students have access to high-speed internet topped the Public School Forum’s list of Top Ten Education Issues for 2021. Access to broadband became critical for students and school districts last spring when Gov. Roy Cooper ordered schools closed for in-person instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Without high-speed internet, many students were unable to connect to remote learning. Students in the rural parts of the state found connecting to classrooms especially difficult. According to the public schools advocacy group, 192,000 of the state’s 1.5 million students lived in homes without access to high-speed internet. It also reported that more than 30 percent of state households cannot afford broadband, lack needed infrastructure or the digital literacy skills to effectively access and use high speed internet.