At the Congressional Black Caucus’s recent gala, the Rev. William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign said, “We don’t need another banquet. … We need a movement to make this country treat poor people right.”
And Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley urged us all to use technology to “protect the vulnerable (and) mobilize a global movement across the world to protect the education, health and security of our people.”
It’s a powerful, inspiring idea — use technology to protect the vulnerable.
But it faces one major roadblock — too many low-income families and people of color don’t even have internet access at home: 30 percent of families with yearly incomes below $50,000 lack home access; overall, more than 30 percent of low-income families with school-age children lack home internet service.
The challenge is even greater in communities of color: For African-Americans in the lower economic rungs, that number rises to 48 percent, while Hispanic-Americans are increasingly likely to be “handheld only” internet users, with more than 80 percent relying on mobile devices that aren’t adequate for key tasks like job applications, college admissions, or accessing government information and benefits. Overall, low-income Americans are twice as likely to be found “digitally unprepared” to compete in the modern economy.
Policy wonks call this the “homework gap” since it translates into schoolchildren’s inability to complete homework that must be done online, something I have seen personally watching my great niece painstakingly work through complex homework on her smartphone.
But some kids don’t even have a personal smartphone with Word, Excel or other typical software as an option to get their homework done. In Washington, D.C., at Anacostia Library, kids line up after school to use computers. Because of the demand, kids are limited to 30-minute stretches, after which they must get back in line and sign up again. No child should have to face these obstacles.
Sadly, these obstacles are magnified over time. Study after study has shown the lifelong setback imposed by the digital divide and how it compounds the injustice of underfunded pre-kindergarten programs, impoverished schools, and very large class sizes.
It is abundantly clear that our society has a responsibility to close the homework gap. This can be achieved through public-private partnerships and investment. Thankfully, companies have begun taking steps to, in the words of the Rev. Barber and Prime Minister Mottley, “protect the vulnerable.”
One of the earliest low-cost internet access programs was launched in 2010 by the nation’s largest internet provider, Comcast. With the encouragement of the Obama administration, Comcast blazed the trails for an innovative public/private sector service branded “Internet Essentials” that offers low-cost ($9.95/month) internet service and addresses other factors that families often need to get online: local community mentoring, digital skills and literacy training, and low-cost computers to ensure that families can make the most of their access.
According to the NAACP, this effort, which has moved 6 million Americans online, is the largest campaign ever by the private sector on the digital divide. And now other companies have followed suit with their own low-cost options for qualifying families. Charter’s Spectrum Internet Assist program allows low-income families to add in-home high-speed internet to their cable and phone service for just $5 per month; AT&T’s access program provides low-income families with up to 10 Mbps for $10 per month.
But that’s not enough. Every major industry should be encouraged to first address the needs of the vulnerable. Whether it’s the digital divide, the health divide, the housing divide or the community reinvestment divide, industries should be encouraged or required to address these gaps that affect vulnerable people. It’s the essence of social responsibility.
I visited Detroit recently, and the biggest conversation was around “inclusion” of the vulnerable communities who weathered the storm as the nation’s once prosperous and fourth-largest city’s population has declined 63 percent since 1960. The city is rapidly being revitalized in many places, but the gains — and the opportunity and hope it brings — are spread unevenly and unfairly, and outside the center city too much of Detroit remains neglected.
Detroit is just one example of an unfortunate phenomenon that is plaguing many major cities in our nation. But fairer access to broadband and new opportunities provides one way to turn the tide. Other industries must step up and do their part to spread out the benefits of new technology and resources.
There is hope that others will follow as we continue to see results. As kids go back to school this season, at least many communities now have access to low-cost broadband — and THAT’s what I call a “back to school special.”
