The government are already doing this....
I work in a secondary school up north and I have been trying to get my head round CfP which the Goverment set up in 2007. Basically it involves throwing a load of cash at LEAs and asking them to organise along with secondary schools in deprived areas access to the internet at home by providing a networkable device (PC, Laptop, etc) along with a broadband connection. This is to go to the worst off kids, those who are typically on free dinners and who's parent(s) are barely older than themselves.
The thing about the cash is, it is enough to provide a decent machine, but in many cases not enough to cover a year's broadband, never mind longer than that. Many LEAs have just passed the money on to their schools and said "Here, you deal with it". As far as I am aware, there are no checks on how the money is spent in that case. In the case of our LEA and we are not the exception, they really have tried to help their schools to make best use of the money, organising tenders for the hardware, and trying to get someone to provide broadband. But it is a nightmare.
Many of our families don't even have phone line, never mind an acount with BT. That means it has to be 3G, but in Cumbria there isn't the best coverage. The funding states that it will provide broadband for a year. What about after that? There is nothing that says there should be pressure on the parents to pay.
Then there is the problem of support. True, the hardware will have a manufacturer warrantee, the broadband will have a helpline, but what about software support? Apparently, this falls on school techies. As if we don't have enough to do. Then there is the problem of support for parents. How do they know if their kids really are doing what they are supposed to? Are they even interested? Are they themselves going to use the equipment to run a dodgy outfit from home? What if they take the Laptop down to the car boot sale so they can buy cigs, £20 on the lottery and a whole load of booze?
Is it not plain to see that this whole thing is just another tick box, that it causes no end of work for those who have to implement it, and that there is no evidence that IT improves a pupil's education??? As has already been commented upon, better parenting, trained teachers, and school improvements would have a much better chance of improving education. But not ICT in a deprived home where there is no atmosphere to learn in the first place.