Equal Access to the Internet Should Be a Basic Right

A recently concluded Digital Inclusion Summit in Kansas City highlighted the disadvantage residents face not having home broadband Internet access, especially school-age kids and job-seeking adults. As many as 25% of Kansas Citians and 70% of KCMO public school youth don't have home access, and it's good to know a digital inclusion coalition is emerging from the summit to fix this gap.

Another fact from the summit shared during a presentation is that the uneven KC broadband landscape is common to other large metroplitan areas, like a report last week showing "some 800,000 New Jersey households with income of $35,000 or less, only 54 percent had broadband Internet access and 45 percent had no connection at all."

So large projects to address the digital divide are needed. One such project by the Obama administration [possible NY Times registration required] proposes a solution to a problem "with fewer than half of American public schools connected to high-speed Internet in their classrooms" by challenging school districts to add broadband and tablets.

This solution helps level the playing field on schools, but it's evident the high cost of home broadband leaves students unable to complete assignments at home. The preponderence of students accessing Google Apps/Drive to collaborate on assignments leaves students behind, if they don't have home broadband.

Another effort by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposes a phone fee to bring broadband access to schools and libraries, where, according to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, "63 percent of public schools and over 40 million students don't have high-speed broadband in the classroom."

The benefits of providing high-speed broadband access to people who can't afford the service at home is clear because of the need to fill out online job applications or to complete homework assignments.

Look for the emerging digital coalition in KC led by several organizations such as Kansas City Public Library, KC Digital Divide and Connecting for Good to pilot covering whole neighborhoods with wifi. More pilot project details will be available soon.

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