“What the quarantine and coronavirus did was really elevate how significant an issue this has been for a very long time,” Anello said. “We’ve always thought of the Internet as a luxury, and the truth is coronavirus made us realize it’s a necessity.”

The program, dubbed Chicago Connected, will provide more than 100,000 Chicago Public School students with the Internet at home, and officials say the goal is to make sure those students are never without broadband again.

The donors will pay for the first two years of the program, while the school district will fund years three and four.