Black students desperately need a new federal Lifeline

The federal Lifeline program was created in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan to help low-income Americans afford telephone service. It has been expanded over the years to help provide access to a basic cellphone with a limited amount of data. The most recent evolution, to accommodate broadband, was demonized by some Republicans who labeled it the “Obamaphone” program. Here’s a modest but timely proposal, given President Donald Trump’s quest to reverse all markers of the Obama administration: Update Lifeline to cover educational tools like tablets and provide enough data for low-income kids to access their classes from home.  If President Trump wants to do the right thing and solve this problem quickly, he could direct the FCC to take these steps for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis:

• Ensure that Lifeline beneficiaries have access to 4G where available, and enable hot spot access;
• Temporarily suspend the limit of one device per household, and encourage Lifeline providers to make available larger-screen devices like tablets;
• Temporarily lift the 3-gigabyte data limit and instruct providers to deliver up to 40 gigabytes of data;

[Ben Crump is a civil rights attorney and founder of the national law firm Ben Crump Law, based in Tallahassee (FL)]