“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu.”
As a pastor and community activist, I’ve often heard this wise explanation for why public funds often flow to the privileged and powerful while those with the greatest needs are left high and dry.
Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., have agreed to invest $65 billion in broadband infrastructure projects nationwide. Remote rural communities hope the plan will finally bring high-speed networks to their doorsteps; special interests, on the other hand, are eager to spend the windfall subsidizing more lucrative projects in wealthier, already-wired areas.
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But amidst the promise of progress for rural America, policymakers must not ignore digital inequality in our major cities. Here in Philadelphia, 99 percent of our households have broadband on their doorsteps; 95 percent have a choice of providers; but only 70 percent subscribe to broadband.
Unless we make sure the program helps low-income families buy broadband subscriptions, poor folks in Philadelphia and other major cities will be left behind.
Why won’t 30 percent of Philadelphians buy subscriptions? And how can we get them online?
The problem isn’t lagging infrastructure—it’s low incomes. One of the nation’s poorest cities, Philadelphia’s poverty rate was 23.3 percent before Covid-19 cratered industries like restaurants and retail.
The program would make a moral statement, that, just as our society provides every citizen with a basic level of nutrition, health care and housing, broadband access is also a human right.
After low-income families scrape up the money for rent, food, clothes for their kids and the electrical, gas and water bills, they don’t have much left at the end of the month. Broadband providers’ low-income programs, offering home service for as little as $10 a month, have proven a solution for millions. But for folks working two jobs and still falling behind—and especially for those shuffling between unstable housing situations—broadband may still seem like a luxury.
Over the past year, bold new initiatives have emerged to build on top of existing programs and help more struggling families connect.
After the pandemic forced Philadelphia’s public schools to shift classes online, the PHLConnectED public-private partnership offered free home broadband to tens of thousands of poor students. And last December, Congress created the Emergency Broadband Benefit, providing low-income families with $50-a-month to stay connected. During its first week alone, more than 1 million households signed up, demonstrating the demand for such subsidies.
Now that Americans are going back to work and school, low-income families still need help affording broadband connections. And we can’t keep settling for stopgaps.
The keepers of our country’s conscience—leading civil rights organizations including the NAACP and Urban League—are calling on Congress and the Biden administration to turn the temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit into a permanent program, modeled on the SNAP program that ensures every family can afford groceries.
In a very real sense, the program would make more than just a moral statement, that, just as our society provides every citizen with a basic level of nutrition, health care and housing, broadband access is also a human right. It would also build a bridge between low-income Americans and the information superhighway.
By some estimates, the program would cost between $8 to $12 billion a year. Since President Biden has famously said that government budgets should reflect society’s values, his administration and Congressional allies should find the funds to help every family afford a broadband connection.
It will be easier to find the money for a PBB if Congress makes sure that the $65 billion for rural broadband isn’t swallowed up by the waste, fraud and crony capitalism that marred earlier efforts. In the last major federally funded broadband expansion, part of the 2009 stimulus, well-connected special interests siphoned funds intended for isolated rural areas to build unnecessary projects in already-connected communities.
We don’t need more “Robin Hood in Reverse”—robbing from the poor and giving to the rich. Instead, the broadband program should promote digital equity for low-income Americans— urban and rural, Black, brown and white—by helping them access and afford high-speed broadband and navigate the internet.
This time, Washington Beltway insiders are at it again, trying to rig the game with eligibility gimmicks that would actually make almost 60 percent of the country—including upscale enclaves like Palm Beach and Vail—eligible for scarce funding more urgently needed by the digital have-nots.
We don’t need more “Robin Hood in Reverse”—robbing from the poor and giving to the rich. Instead, the broadband program should promote digital equity for low-income Americans— urban and rural, Black, brown and white—by helping them access and afford high-speed broadband and navigate the internet.
In addition to a PBB, we need an all-out effort to educate low-income communities to adopt broadband and acquire digital literacy skills. As with vaccination and voter registration drives, churches, masjids, temples and community organizations have the local contacts and cultural competence to do the job.
Just as with access to education, job opportunities and the ballot box, broadband connections are essential elements of contemporary citizenship. It’s time to invest in bridging the urban and rural digital divides, so that working families, low-income people and communities of color can take our seat at the table in 21st-century America.
Rev. Nicolas O’Rourke, a West Philadelphia resident, is pastor at Living Water United Church of Christ in Oxford Circle, and a community organizer for POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild), a grassroots organization of 50 congregations committed to racial, economic and environmental justice.
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The Citizen is one of 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push towards economic justice. Follow the project on Twitter @BrokeInPhilly.
Header photo by Abhishek Baxi / Flickr