Panelists See Opportunity to Address Homework Gap Through IIJA Broadband Programs

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s $65 billion broadband investment presents an opportunity to bridge the digital divide for students and improve workforce development across the country, industry experts and officials said Monday during a Software & Information Industry Association webinar. Panelists said the FCC, NTIA and other agencies should ensure their programs are sustainable and promote digital equity.

Students without access to at-home internet “exhibit lower digital skills attainment” and homework completion rates among other things, said Ji Soo Song, broadband adviser, Department of Education Broadband Adviser-Office of Education Technology. It “disproportionately impacts” students of color and those from low-income backgrounds and from rural areas, Song said.

Officials need to account for the “human barriers” to broadband adoption in addition to access and affordability, Song said. That includes “awareness and understanding of available programs and resources,” the sign-up process to participate in programs, trust between communities and services, and “building digital readiness and digital literacy,” he said.

The digital divide is a “complex and nuanced issue” that requires looking at infrastructure, affordability and digital readiness, said Heather Gate, Connected Nation vice president-digital inclusion and FCC Communications Equity and Diversity Council chair (see 2202230065). There also needs to be a willingness to “evolve in our definition of digital divide” as technology and connectivity needs change, Gate said.

A coalition of consumer advocacy groups proposed the FCC use future auction proceeds to fund digital equity, focusing on breaking down some of the human barriers, said Michael Calabrese, New America's Open Technology Institute Wireless Future Program director (see 2202230058). Address access, affordability and adoption, Calabrese said: There are also “great benefits here for [education technology] … to close the homework gap more permanently.”

Cengage Group has been “increasingly providing more online courseware when it comes to career, technical, education and vocational programs” to meet students’ needs, said Senior Director-Government Affairs Rosemary Lahasky: “There's obviously a lot of work to be done” in helping individuals gain access to online education and workforce development, “but we sort of remain optimistic.” There needs to be “a better job of linking employment and education,” she said, and that was “one of the biggest things I saw coming out of [IIJA].”

The infrastructure law’s broadband investment is “probably one quarter to one third of the money needed to do what’s needed across this country,” said former NTIA Administrator Larry Irving. Federal agencies should continue working with states and local organizations “on the ground who understand what’s really happening,” he said (see 2204180033).

The “biggest indicator” of connectivity is income, Irving said. “If we don’t focus on that” in addition to geography, “we’re going to have a problem.” Gate said NTIA’s recent notice of funding opportunity for its programs “explicitly has language that says that deployment, the deployment programs, and the digital equity for programs ought to be linked, integrated, and complementary.”

States “have an incredible opportunity” to address adoption barriers through NTIA’s digital equity planning grants, Song said, adding his office hopes to publish a collection this fall of best practices and success stories from communities across the country.

There’s “a lot of money in the pipeline for building out broadband in this country,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., in prerecorded remarks (see 2205130054). “We need to make sure that it's spent wisely,” Thune said, warning against overbuilding and imposing “burdensome regulation” like rate regulation or net neutrality.