Strong partnerships and innovative community solutions are key for organizations looking to advance adult education opportunities using upcoming Digital Equity Act funds. This was the message of Digital Equity Champions for All Learners: Preparing Adult Education, a webinar hosted by the Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology (OET) in partnership with the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) and World Education. The webinar, part of a series on the subject in advance of the COABE National Conference later this month, featured a number of “possibility models” of successful and replicable strategies for closing the digital access divide. In each model, coalition-building and sustainable partnerships were crucial to maintaining digital inclusion work. 

The Biden-Harris Administration announced the approval of $20 million for digital connectivity projects in Pennsylvania under the US Department of the Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF). The award will fund Pennsylvania’s Digital Access Opportunity Grant program, through which the commonwealth will partner with community anchor institutions (CAIs) to increase access to laptops, tablets, desktop computers, and Wi-Fi devices to individuals in Pennsylvania. Devices will be available for use in home or public spaces, such as schools and libraries, through loan programs from CAIs. CAIs will also offer digital literacy training. Pennsylvania estimates this program will benefit approximately 12,000 individuals annually. The American Rescue Plan’s Capital Projects Fund provides a total of $10 billion to states, territories, freely associated states, and Tribal governments to fund critical capital projects that expand economic opportunities and provide internet connectivity in communities with unmet needs. Through high-speed internet, multi-purpose community facilities, and digital technology investments, CPF funding is both closing the digital divide and bringing workforce, education, and health care services to communities in need.

23,269,550. This was the number of households participating in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) when enrollment closed on February 8th, 2024. It is more than one out of every six households in the United States. But 23,269,550 is also a very high precipice from which to fall. If the ACP ends, all enrollees will experience some combination of bill shock, disconnections, financial sacrifice, service downgrades, and/or household debt. Any successor program will have to start from zero and rebuild in the shadow of Congress’ broken commitments. 23,269,550 households is a large and diverse group of people. Yet we know four things about nearly all of them:

1. They are in difficult financial circumstances. An individual enrollee likely makes less than $20,000/year; an enrolled family of four likely makes less than $40,000/year. For people in such circumstances, survey after survey after survey after survey after survey finds that cost is a primary barrier to internet adoption. 
2. They invested significant time in the ACP. Some ACP applications took 30-45 minutes, others spanned multiple days. Many require additional documentation, and all require annual recertification. Even if every application took only five minutes, the collective amount of time spent enrolling would total over two centuries. 
3. They trusted the government with their financial stability. Each enrollee accepted responsibility for a bill that the government promised to help them them pay. As a result, enrollees are collectively on the hook for about $700 million a month. For now, they can freely change or cancel their service contract, but this protection only lasts as long as the ACP does. If the ACP ends, the bill will fall squarely on enrollees' shoulders.
4. They currently have internet service. Remarkably, 23,269,550 of our country’s hardest-to-connect households now reliably have internet service thanks to the ACP. The vast majority are already using this connectivity for education, healthcare, and work. As state digital equity programs roll out, the positive impacts of this connectivity will grow even larger. 

The ACP is on course to end on April 30th. If it does, we will no longer know that these households have internet service. Instead, all we will know is that internet service is hard, if not impossible, for them to afford.