Modernizing Lifeline: Why Broadband Support is so Critical
By Matthew Meyer, a Summer 2015 Leadership Conference Education Fund Intern
In 1985, Congress established the Lifeline program to provide low-income individuals with a monthly subsidy for accessing telephone service. The policymakers who backed the program understood the significance of phone service in the lives of low-income Americans: those without phone service were left less able to interview for jobs, interact with government services, or even call 911 in case of emergency. For these Americans, Lifeline opens up a host of opportunities for socioeconomic advancement, helping to break the intergenerational trend of poverty.
Low-income individuals in 2015 face a new problem: access to broadband. It’s particularly an issue for low-income Black and Hispanic Americans, who have rates of broadband access significantly lower than the national average – making the issue a concern for the civil and human rights community. And that unequal access to broadband services impacts low-income Americans significantly in the areas of employment and education.
Those without access to broadband are left increasingly unable to fully participate in the modern job market. At a Senate hearing on Lifeline last week, Jessica Gonzalez of the National Hispanic Media Coalition emphasized “how critical home broadband access is to nearly every facet of modern American life.” She also noted that “more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies, including huge employers like Walmart and Target, only accept job applications online.” Those without broadband are largely excluded from these job opportunities and are marginalized from the job market – just as those without phone access were in 1985 – making the modernization an important step toward fulfilling the program’s goals.
Just as worrying is the effect this has on education for students from low-income families – a phenomenon known as the “homework gap.” According to a recent Pew Research Center study, school-age children lack access to broadband, leaving them unable to complete the online homework many teachers assign and making them unable to fully engage in their studies. Gonzalez put it best when she said of Lifeline’s modernization to include broadband, “To balk at this task, to delay, isn’t just to throw aside the core American value of educational equality; it is giving up on our country’s future. Tomorrow is too late – we must act boldly and we must act now.”
Momentum for this change is building. Just last month, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed a modernization effort, which was followed shortly by the introduction of a bill – the Broadband Adoption Act – on June 1 that would mandate updating Lifeline to broadband.