LEGO Foundation CEO on initiative to help tackle U.S. digital divide among children

Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi speak with LEGO Foundation CEO about the Creating Learning Connections Grant.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: While the coronavirus pandemic has forced education to move online, it has also shed light on a huge digital divide that's just intensifying in this country. A recent survey by First Book shows 40% of kids in the US don't have reliable internet. LEGO Education and LEGO Foundation announced this morning that they are partnering with a number of companies for something called Creating Learning Connections Grant. It's implemented to address this very issue.

Joining us now with the details is LEGO Foundation CEO John Goodwin. John, good to have you on the show. So just tell us, who are you partnering with to make this happen? And how does it work, exactly?

JOHN GOODWIN: Yeah, well, it's great to be here. Thanks for the opportunity. We're partnering with Intel, CDWG, and First Book in order to provide the technology that's needed in order to really narrow that digital divide and really bring more children into the digital learning landscape. As you rightly identified in the lead-in, data indicates that 40% of students are not getting access to the internet or having the ready access to a device.

So what we're looking to do through this grant and through this consortium is put the technology in the hands of the students. But importantly, also, giving them the training and the capabilities that they need in order to really fully utilize that and get the learning experiences that they really require.

BRIAN SOZZI: John, how do you decide who-- what schools get this money?

JOHN GOODWIN: Yeah, so we've gone through a process of effectively putting out the details of the grant. And then we've had a number of applications that have come in that have been processed. Schools have been selected.

So we'll be distributing the products across 17 states, 45 districts. And we're going to Title I districts, those districts that really have impoverished students that really are the recipients, unfortunately, of this-- of the raw end of this digital divide.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Of course, what you are doing there in conjunction with these companies and the LEGO Foundation is definitely making a difference. But it's just really a small piece of the overall pie. What would you like to see happen, maybe at the federal level, at the state level, to help bridge that digital divide, as we're talking about?

JOHN GOODWIN: Well, access, we think, is really important, which is why this grant that we've gone with is part of the solution that we're looking to establish to show, by the provision of both technology and hands-on great LEGO Education learning tools, we can really narrow that gap and help those people in those Title I districts, those students that are really suffering, lift their capabilities up. Hopefully through that process, we'll be able to illustrate at both the district and the state and the federal level that there are solutions out there in order to bring more people, be more inclusive in the education system.

BRIAN SOZZI: Besides this, John, where else are you looking to put money to work right now?

JOHN GOODWIN: Well, at the moment, the LEGO Foundation is really turning its attention to how we can operate in many environments around the globe to help address the issues that over 1.5 billion students find themselves in at this point in time as a consequence of the global pandemic. So we're operating throughout the globe with distance-learning solutions. And what we're finding is there's a lot of innovation that's coming out through this crisis. And then what we'll look to do is amplify that when we get on the far side.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I know that before your position there at the LEGO Foundation, you were CFO of LEGO Group. And all businesses have ebbs and flows. There was a time when LEGO was sort of falling out of favor. It reinvented itself.

How is business now, if you know if you can speak to that at all? And how might other companies look at what LEGO did as they try to reinvent themselves and stay relevant?

JOHN GOODWIN: Yeah, I can't really speak to the most recent results. But looking over that period that you're referencing, the company really did focus on its core, what it was that it was contributing in uniquely into children's lives, and really double down on those skills and capabilities, and really listen very intently to the core consumers, and ensuring that they were developing the products that were critical for them. And from that got momentum and continued the journey.