Kansas Gets $15 Million in Digital Equity Funds from Treasury

The US Treasury Department awarded Kansas $15 million for digital equity work, with the money going toward public Wi-Fi, digital skills training, and more. In addition, 20 other states have applied for digital equity funding from the same source, with other awards expected to be made soon. “Kansas is just the first of many more to come,” said Joseph Wender director of the Treasury Department's Capital Projects Fund (CPF), which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). What makes this announcement significant is that the Kansas award is specifically for digital equity — and just digital equity, not broadband infrastructure, as is more common for grants of this size that involve digital inclusion. The way the CPF was written into law leaves a lot of discretion to governors’ offices. As such, coordination is crucial to helping states obtain the available digital equity money, Wender advised.