Enduring Disparities in Broadband Access

In December, the Teaching, Learning, and Tech program with support from our Open Technology Institute colleagues at New America conducted a roundtable to explore how students, families, and schools navigate the broadband landscape. Fifteen participants including students, parents, state-level and district tech coordinators, non-profit leaders, librarians, teachers, superintendents, and youth development specialists from urban, rural, Tribal, and mountainous communities shared insights into issues of availability, affordability, technical assistance, awareness, and communication about broadband resources.

This data comes almost two years after the major investments in broadband across the country. In 2021, Congress passed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which provided $65 billion of funding for broadband services across the country through several programs:

• The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program allocated $42.45 billion for broadband deployment, mapping, and adoption projects.
• The Digital Equity Act dedicates $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital inclusion and equity to ensure that all individuals and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity to reap the full benefits of the digital economy:
  • The State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, which has since opened for submission, provides $60 million for states and territories to develop digital equity plans. Maine became the first state to have their equity plan approved.
  • The Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program provides $1.44 billion for states, territories, and tribal governments.
  • The Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program provides $1.25 billion annually for five years to implement digital equity projects.

The latter two programs have not yet opened for application, but when they do more information can be accessed on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration website. Additionally, the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program provides $3 billion to tribal governments for broadband deployment on tribal lands.

As part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress created the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which is an extension of the pandemic-era Emergency Broadband Benefit. Participating households receive a subsidy of $30 per month ($75 on Tribal lands) for their internet bill if their income level is at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines or they participate in certain other assistance programs. The funding set aside for this program is set to expire in April 2024 and has already stopped taking new applications. It is also worth noting that while established in 1996, the E-Rate program remains vital to keeping students connected as it provides broadband services for schools and libraries across the country. Current efforts to expand eligibility include allowing school buses to be outfitted with WIFI and oncoming considerations of hotspots.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark disparities in broadband access as highlighted by the 2021 NTIA Internet Use Survey. But despite all of the significant investments, students and families in low-income, rural, and Tribal communities continue to grapple with substantial challenges accessing physical infrastructure, adequate bandwidth, and other factors contributing to the digital divide. Issues like digital discrimination (or digital redlining), cost barriers, lack of profitability, competition, and geographic terrain all contribute to underinvestment in these communities.

Participants, recruited based on specific roles, encountered challenges with broadband access, devices, and technical support in various capacities—whether as students, parents, grandparents, community members, non-profit leaders, educators, or librarians which were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The challenges participants identified fell into four buckets of barriers which are inextricably linked: awareness, technical assistance, availability, and affordability. The findings also are aligned with the digital access divide outlined in the 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) and include a lack of access to technical assistance for students and families needed to use the internet and devices. The presence of any of these barriers results in inadequate access to education, healthcare, job opportunities, and other essential services, impacting overall community well-being, civic engagement, and economic development.

Awareness

In many districts, the district tech coordinators are responsible for outreach to students and families regarding available programs and funding streams to supply reliable broadband access. Often, the information is shared only on school websites with no additional outreach or marketing. As a result, one participant noted that many low-income and marginalized students and their families, including those with disabilities, were not receiving this information. As one student participant said, “A lot of things are advertised on the internet. If you can’t access the internet, how can you learn about it?” If students are receiving information to be sent home, this communication is often not in their home language or misplaced before reaching the household. In some cases, participants learned about ACP word of mouth, i.e. from a grandparent who attended an AARP meeting.

Technical Assistance

If students and families are aware of programs to help them pay their internet bills, the next challenge is understanding how to apply for funding. ACP funding and state provided subsidies are directed at families where they apply for discounted internet services. Some, particularly those where English is not their home language, need assistance in completing applications. According to one participant, applying for E-Rate funding by the school is more efficient than helping individual families apply for ACP. E-Rate funding was mentioned by several educators as a good resource as it allows schools and libraries to receive the funding to support families directly including purchasing and managing devices and apps and troubleshooting remotely. In addition, one participant wondered if some families may have a stigma about applying for discounts.

Once received, setting up and using devices becomes the next barrier. One participant shared that most families eligible for funding are unsure how to navigate the internet in their homes. One library participant explained that her community library was in charge of distributing and managing the devices that were given to students, but lacked the technical assistance to help families use the devices. Participants from rural and Tribal communities added that they could not physically assist families in-person with using the devices because of geographic distance and/or the pandemic, but tried to assist families remotely. And while some school districts are able to adequately support students and families, others are still struggling to build capacity according to one participant.

Affordability and Availability

Even if students and families can access service from internet service providers at their homes, affordability and availability are the next set of barriers. The most significant challenges are encountered in rural, mountainous, or other areas without cellular reception. According to one participant, companies are not financially incentivized to connect rural communities. Another participant adds, “There is a huge effort across the state of Washington to get connectivity to those who can’t afford it. But I don’t see an appetite for laying fiber-optic cables for that last percentage with tough mountain roads. Companies can get more bang for their buck in urban areas.” In some Tennessee rural counties, utilities are so high that families are forced to choose between internet or food, shelter, and electricity.

Tribal communities, many located in rural areas, often lack fiber-optic cables and/or receive “flimsy” broadband despite federal and state subsidies. One participant explained that most families in their community cannot afford reliable internet in their homes, and despite state and federal partnership efforts like the Pueblo Education Network projected to be completed in July 2024, families are still without adequate broadband access.

Furthermore, participants expressed that even if families have access to broadband, it may not be sufficient to support an entire household simultaneously, especially during the pandemic when entire families had to work or attend school remotely. Although schools theoretically have access to high speed internet, it is often not optimal. As one participant stated, “Imagine coming from a home with no access to a school with limited access.”

Even with good broadband access at school, students may not have access to smartphones or other appropriate devices. When devices were distributed by schools during the pandemic, multiple participants noted the lack of consistent or any broadband, particularly for highly mobile, low-income, or unhoused students inhibiting them from fully participating in online learning or completing homework.

Post-Pandemic Concerns

The post-pandemic era has raised new concerns including the fact that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) which has helped over 23 million households across the country to pay for their broadband internet service is set to run out of funding in April 2024. Even if renewed, participants are worried that many of the resources currently available will be rescinded or scaled back. In addition, some students have lost access to broadband at home because they had to return to their hotspots.

Libraries were mentioned by several participants as vital partners in not only providing information about broadband funding through events and partnering with schools and community-based organizations, but also supplying devices, hotspots, and long-term lending of routers to students and community members. However, if students are able to receive a temporary hotspot, oftentimes they have to share with other family members, and if received from school, lose access during the summer when devices need to be returned. But as one library participant states, “Hotspots are temporary. How do we get permanent connectivity? And how do we reach people who aren’t coming into the library?” Similarly, one superintendent shares reaching families that are not connected is still one of her big concerns.

Despite increased connectivity stemming from significant broadband investments, the struggle persists for low-income, rural, and Tribal communities to access and afford reliable services. While more funding is necessary for universal broadband access, how the funding is utilized to build sustainable systems is equally crucial. Recommendations drawn from the roundtable include:

• Measure progress in equitable access, and incentivize large companies and smaller providers to provide fiber optic cables and high speed internet, especially in hard-to-reach areas.
• Support partnerships with libraries and community-based organizations as internet hubs and technical assistance centers.
• Leverage the knowledge of schools, and collaborate with community anchor institutions such as libraries, museums, community colleges, and other community-based organizations, to find and educate hard-to-reach families through multiple outreach efforts including school websites, newsletters bulletins, parent/teacher conferences, mobile apps and text alerts, community meetings, and outreach programs, i.e. multilingual parent/family liaisons.
• Help policymakers understand that hotspots are a stopgap and not the long-term solution. In the meantime, hotspots or satellite services are still needed at home even if the pandemic is officially over. At-risk and marginalized students are still unable to complete their homework.
• Incorporate technology, i.e. devices, internet access, and technical assistance into state equity plans and statutes as the rationale for fully funding equitable connectivity.
• Galvanize a coalition of agencies including local and regional funders to advocate for more funding from state legislators directed at equity and economic mobility. Learn from digital equity plans from states and districts such as New Mexico or Washington DC.
• Consider creating community networks or overturning laws in the 16 states that currently restrict the creation or expansion of municipal broadband by states, cities, or communities.
• Provide capacity building funding, particularly for districts that are not well prepared to support equitable broadband access.

Effective and high-quality teaching and learning for all students is at the heart of public education. Technology is a tool among many that can be a powerful and transformative one in addressing some of the inequities in education. But as researcher Justin Reich notes in the 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP), “Predictions of imminent transformation are among the most reliable refrains in the history of educational technology. And, across that history and present-day classrooms, it has failed to realize this full potential.”

Communities are progressing towards realizing the full potential of technology. In 2014, Yazzie Martinez districts in New Mexico sued the state for inadequate funding for education. Five years later, a comprehensive ruling outlined the state’s obligations to provide sufficient resources and opportunities for at-risk students to be college and career ready. However in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the state attempted to dismiss the lawsuit. Fueled by data collected in New Mexico, and the Council of Chief State School Officers on the state of internet access for unserved and underserved students and what devices are available, a court ordered the state to create a plan to ensure all students have access to devices and reliable internet connections. In 2023, the Technology for Education Act became the Digital Equity in Education Act and includes technology as essential to providing adequate education for all. As one state education agency participant noted, it has been the perseverance of those who believe all students deserve to be college and career ready, anchored by data, and the community partnerships that have led and will lead to the inclusion of technology as necessary in New Mexico. “We knocked down silos and coordinated with other agencies. We learned that it takes community-based organizations to make the difference in reaching and helping families.”