State Governments Continue to Add Digital Equity Staff

A  wave of states has recently created new full-time positions to work on digital inclusion and digital equity. As many as 15 states now have full-time staffers dedicated to this, or they have added digital equity to their broadband deployment lead’s title. There is a clear financial impetus for them to fill these positions, to the tune of $2.75 billion, to be exact. That’s the allocation for digital equity headed down to states from the federal government through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). To get this money, states have roughly one year to present federal decision-makers with a digital equity plan. And while many states are just putting the work into their existing broadband deployment offices, national advocates suggest not doing that, not if they want to fully satisfy federal requirements and maximize the money they receive, said Amy Huffman, policy director with the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), as well as a former full-time digital inclusion staffer with North Carolina. Huffman also suggests that states view such hires as long-term, rather than as simply a staffer to get the grants. For the moment, though, these relatively new staffers should all be focused on the digital equity money from the federal government.