Thanks to New Guidance, We're Pouring Billions into a Broadband Program That's Doomed to Fail

Jessica Dine, policy analyst at New America's Open Technology Institute and Wireless Future, wrote an op-ed published by Newsweek on how new BEAD guidance will undo years of progress toward the goal of closing the digital divide.

Imagine you were building the house where your family would grow up, and in choosing a contractor, you had to go with the cheapest upfront quote. Not the company's track record, proposed designs, or even whether the project would violate your HOA. That's what's happening right now to this $42.5 billion program that's meant to bring America online.

Lutnick isn't wrong to want to streamline and speed up BEAD, but the way he's gone about it will leave Americans worse off. States are best positioned to determine our broadband future—and Lutnick still has time to put them back in the driver's seat before we've thrown all our BEAD dollars away.