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Round-Up for the Week of July 8-12, 2024

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, in collaboration with the Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, recently hosted a webinar series titled the Power of Partnership: State Strategies for Digital and Educational Equity. Featuring North Carolina, New Mexico, and Maine, the series highlighted states that have made significant commitments to partnering with educational institutions as part of their state digital equity plans. 

In each webinar representatives from the state broadband offices outlined how their digital equity plan was developed, shedding light on how the state office thought about the intersection of digital equity and education. They were joined by educational partners from the states who reflected on their involvement in digital equity planning, and together they took questions about their approaches and forthcoming work. 

Across the three states, a few themes emerged in common. First, educational institutions are assets when serving covered populations. Second, building and maintaining partnerships is key. And finally, digital and educational equity are inextricably linked. 

Educational Institutions Are Assets When Serving Covered Populations

Panelists from North Carolina and Maine both touched on the value of educational institutions particularly for targeting covered populations. 

During the July 10 webinar spotlighting Maine, Marijke Visser from the Maine State Library talked about how libraries are trusted anchor institutions with strong community relationships in even the most remote areas in the state.

“We have 257 public libraries that are sprinkled across the state," said Visser. "We're in some of our most rural and far-flung locations...we serve everyone including many of the covered populations that the plan needs to reach. Even the tiniest little libraries in the rural and remote areas are offering fiber connectivity. We have public computers and laptops and devices and hotspots. We have the staff that know their communities and are providing the digital skills training and that kind of thing.” 

Similarly, Jenifer Bean from the North Carolina Community College System emphasized that community colleges are uniquely positioned to address the needs of the covered populations they serve in the North Carolina session on June 27.

“One thing that we've really had as our North Star when we're doing our digital navigator activities is to think about those covered populations and make sure that we're serving them," Bean said. "Community colleges truly are a reflection of the communities that they serve. North Carolina has such a wide variety of people who live here, of types of locations from urban to suburban to rural. And our community colleges serves them all."

Bean added that choosing the right partners to reflect the needs of covered populations is crucial to pursuing the digital equity goals of the North Carolina Community College System and the state.

"One thing we were very careful about when we were selecting educational partners to do this digital navigator work is we paid very close attention to those covered populations," she said. "We studied very carefully our 100 counties around North Carolina and we tried to identify those counties who most reflected the covered populations from the digital equity act and from our state's digital equity plan.”

Building and Maintaining Partnerships is Key

Panelists also emphasized partnerships in digital equity work as critical to sustainability and success. 

Jennifer Nevarez from the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) cited interagency and community collaboration as a theme of the agency. John Chadwick, from the New Mexico Public Education Department, said that collaboration with OBAE is critical for long-term success in the state.

During the North Carolina webinar on June 12, Maggie Woods from the North Carolina Office of Digital Equity and Literacy was asked what success looked like to her when it comes to digital equity.

“Success looks like making sure that we're highlighting partnerships," said Woods. "Our office happened to do the digital equity plan, but we could not have even written it without the partnerships that we have. We are a small team, and we cannot achieve digital equity in North Carolina without our education partners. To me, that's what success looks like. How do we continue to work together? How do we build our partnerships? How do we collaboratively ensure that we're working to close the digital divide together?”

Digital and Educational Equity Are Inextricably Linked

Beth Lambert from the Maine Department of Education spoke about education and digital equity as being interrelated goals.

“It's hard to separate the two because I think that digital inclusion is, in and of its essence, supporting all that public education is trying to accomplish or and working towards that goal," she said.

Maggie Woods echoed that sentiment.

“The two are so linked, right? You really can't have one without the other," she said. "I think it's really important to highlight that digital equity is critical to education, right? In order to succeed in an educational environment, you have to have internet … Education and digital equity are linked and are critical to each other.”

Digital Inclusion and Education in Nevada: Implementing the Digital Equity Plan

On June 26, 2024, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration awarded Nevada over $9 million to implement the state's Digital Equity Plan, the first state to receive funding under the Digital Equity Capacity Grant program.

The Digital Equity Act required that state digital equity plans aligned their efforts with broader statewide goals. Nevada plans to support the following education goals through their digital equity programs:

Goals for pre-K through grade 12 include:

1. All children, from birth through third grade, have access to quality early care and education.
2. All students have access to effective educators.
3. All students experienced continued academic growth.
4. All students graduate future-ready and globally prepared for postsecondary success and civic life.

Higher education goals for the state are:

1. Increase access and participation in post-secondary education.
2. Increase student success.
3. Close the achievement gap among underserved student populations.
4. Address the challenges of the workforce and industry education needs of Nevada.

Nevada plans to use a mix of existing state funding and Digital Equity Act funds to achieve its educational goals. The state asserts that increasing access to affordable home internet and connected devices will provide students of all ages with greater learning opportunities, increase the development of 21st-century skills like remote collaboration and problem-solving, and improve learning engagement with students who are “digital natives.” Affordable internet and device access, along with digital skills and supports, enables working parents/guardians and students to further their education and skills development and increases access to higher education for underserved populations.

As students and youth improve access to the internet and a device, they become “in- house” digital navigators for parents, guardians, grandparents, and other older members of their household, which raises overall digital literacy and expands adults’ opportunities to improve digital skills for higher wages. Distance learning benefits K-12 educators as many professional development opportunities are now available online.

Nevada's education-related strategies in its statewide plan include:

• Grow and nurture partnerships with state and local governments, non-profit organizations, public schools and higher education, libraries, workforce, and other community organizations to build awareness for the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which is no longer an active program. In Nevada, 46 percent of eligible 493,948 households were enrolled in the ACP program. The national average, according to EducationSuperHighway, was 37 percent.
• Collaborate with national organizations and experienced local organizations to research and identify how, where, and when to best offer opportunities for Nevadans to learn digital skills, whether through formal classes in a community anchor institution or in more informal environments. Draft statewide policies and fund necessary curriculum, professional development, and staff to offer training. Identify and build the capacity of local community-based organizations, such as community centers, senior centers, libraries, non-profit organizations, public schools and higher education institutions and others to offer digital skills training to covered populations.

Nevada included a variety of educational partners in its planning and implementation process, as well as in its asset inventory for the Digital Equity Plan. As more funding from the Digital Equity Capacity Grant program is released, more states can begin to work towards the goals they've set forth for digital equity in education.

Quick Bits

• Biden-Harris Administration Approves Maryland’s “Internet for All” Initial Proposal
• Biden-Harris Administration Approves Indiana’s “Internet for All” Initial Proposal
• Important Ideas to Streamline Broadband Permitting and Support Internet for All Deployments
• Unlocking Broadband in the Heartland: A Harvest of American Opportunity

Weekend Reads

• FCC Announces Certain Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Census Block Groups Are Eligible for Other Funding
• Guidance for RDOF and CAF Phase II Support Recipients on Procedures for Provider Defaults to Ensure Broadband Network Deployment
• FCC Extends Pause of Lifeline Voice Phase-Out and Mobile Data Changes
• 5G Fund: How many locations will be eligible for this $9 billion program for rural 5G?

ICYMI from Benton

• Affordable Broadband for Nevada
• New Mexico's Commitment to Partnership and Progress Towards Digital Equity
• Unlocking Broadband in the Heartland: A Harvest of American Opportunity
• How the End of the Affordable Connectivity Program is Hurting Low-Income Households and the U.S. Economy
• The Art of the Possible

Upcoming Events

Jul 18––July 2024 Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting (FCC)

Jul 19––Educational Webinar on Digital Equity & Opportunity Collaborative Funding Design (HR&A and Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.)

Jul 30––Direct Video Calling Forum (FCC)

Aug 7––August 2024 Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting (FCC)

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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