Civil and Human Rights Coalition Applauds ConnectHome Broadband Initiative

WASHINGTON –Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president and director of policy at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s announcement launching ConnectHome, an initiative to expand broadband access to residents in assisted housing. The ConnectHome pilot program will provide more than 275,000 families and nearly 200,000 children with the support they need to access high-speed Internet at home, and will help close the homework gap that exists for far too many low-income children who currently do not have home broadband access:

“The initiative announced today by President Obama and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro acknowledges that broadband has become an essential service in modern life. It is as important now as electricity was during the last century, enabling people who use it to perform a full range of online activities, and giving more Americans access to digital education, health care, social services, and job opportunities.

And yet millions of Americans—disproportionately people of color and lower income—still lack home broadband. Cost is a significant factor. Fortunately, Lifeline, the only federal program that directly addresses the cost of broadband, has the potential to provide significant assistance to those who are without broadband access at home and thus are trapped in the homework gap.  Modernizing Lifeline to include broadband has widespread support, and we are hopeful that the Federal Communications Commission can complete this process within the year.

Narrowing the digital divide and giving more Americans, regardless of their race, income, or ZIP code, access to education, job opportunities, health care, and social services, is a national imperative. This public-private partnership has the potential to ensure that all people in the United States are able to benefit from the most advanced technologies and the opportunities technology that can bring.”

Nancy Zirkin is the executive vice president and director of policy at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference, visit www.civilrights.org.

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