Portland, Oregon. (AP) – A program distributes laptops in rural Iowa. Another helped people come back online after Hurricane Helene launched computers and phones in the west of North Carolina. Oregon and Rural Alabama programs teach the elderly, including some who have never touched a computer, how to sail in an increasingly digital world.
Everything collapsed this month when President Donald Trump – on his own digital platform, Truth Social – announced his intention to end Act of digital actionsA federal subsidy program intended to help fill the digital divide. He described it as “racist and illegal” and said that it is equivalent to “awakened documents according to the breed”. He said it was an “illegal gift of 2.5 billion dollars”, although the program was funded with $ 2.75 billion.
The name seemed quite harmless when the program was approved by the congress in 2021 as part of an investment of $ 65 billion intended to provide internet access to each house and business in the United States. The broadband program itself was a key element of the $ 1 Billion infrastructure law pushed by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.
The law on digital actions aimed to fill the shortcomings and to cover the unmet needs that surfaced during the massive deployment of broadband. He gave states and tribes a flexibility to provide high -speed Internet access to families who could not afford, computers to children who had not had them, access to the elderly in rural areas and training and employment skills to veterans.
The question of whether Trump has the legal power to end the program remains unknown. But for the moment, the republican administration can simply stop spending the money.
“I just felt my heart breaking for what we were finally, finally in this country, approaching, the digital division,” said Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a non -profit organization that was allocated – but did not receive – a subsidy of 25.7 million dollars to work with groups across the country to help provide access to technology. “The digital divide is not only physical access to the Internet, it is being able to use it to do what you need to do.”
The word “equity”
Although the program name is probably targeted – the Trump administration has aggressively rubbed the government of programs which promotes diversity, equity or inclusion – the law on digital equity was supposed to be wider.
Although Trump called him racist, the words “race” or “racial” appear just twice in the law text: Once, alongside “color, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability”, in a passage indicating that no group should be excluded from funding, and later, in a list of covered populations, as well as older adults, veterans, disabled people, English learners, people with low -literacy.
“Digital equity has been adopted with bipartisan overwhelming support,” said Democratic Senator Patty Murray in Washington, the main supporter of the law, in a statement. “And it is because my republican colleagues have heard the same stories as me – like the children of rural communities forced to go to McDonalds parking lots so that Wi -Fi do their homework.
“It’s crazy – absolutely crazy – that Trump blocks resources to make sure that children in rural school districts can get hot spots or laptops, all because he doesn’t like capital!”
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which administers the program, refused to comment. It is not entirely clear how many $ 2.75 billion were allocated, although last March NTIA announced The allowance of $ 811 million in states, territories and tribes.
‘More confident’
A recent morning in Portland, Oregon, Brandon Dorn was one of those who followed a keyboard base course offered by Free Geek, a non -profit organization that provides free lessons to help people learn to use computers. The class was offered in low -income housing to make it accessible to residents.
Dorn and the others received laptops and showed the different functions of the keys: control, shift and locking of traffic jams, how to copy and paste. They played a typing game that taught the placement of the fingers and keys on a color code keyboard.
Dorn, 63, said that the courses have helped because “nowadays, everything must go through the computer”. He said that it had helped him feel more confident and less dependent on his children or his grandchildren to do things like making an appointment online.
“People my age, we did not have this luxury because we were too busy working, raising the family,” he said. “So it’s a great way to help us help us.”
Juan Muro, Executive Director of Gree Geek, said participants get the tools and skills they need to access things like online banking services, job requests, online education programs and remote charts. He said Trump’s decision to end funding has put non -profit organizations such as Gree Geek in a precarious position, forcing them to differentiate thanks to their own fundraising and “ask money to simply provide individuals with essential things”.
Sara Nichols works for the Land of Sky Regional Council, a Multicouny planning and development organization in the western North Carolina. On Friday before the inauguration of Trump in January, the organization was notified that it had been approved for a subsidy. But like other groups contacted by the Associated Press, he saw no money.
Land of Sky had spent a lot of resources to help people recover from last year storms. The award notice, said Nichols, came “an incredible news”.
“But between that and the losing state, making their letters, we feel like stuck. What are we going to do? How are we going to go ahead? How are we going to let our communities continue to late? ”
Fulfill the unsatisfied needs
According to the Pew Research Center. In rural communities, the number increases to 27%.
Beyond giving people access to technology and fast Internet, many programs funded by Digital Equity Act have sought to provide “digital navigators” – human aids to guide new people in the world online.
“In the United States, we do not have a coherent source of funding to help individuals connect, to understand how to be online security and how to use this technology to accomplish everything that is now required in the framework of online life,” said SIEFER of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.
This includes everything, the supply of families with hot spots on the internet so that they can connect to the house to help the elderly avoid online scams.
“Health, labor, education, jobs, everything, right?” SIEFER said. “This law was going to be the start for the United States to understand this problem. This is a new problem in the big scheme of things, because now technology is no longer pleasant.
SIEFER said the word “equity” in the name probably prompted Trump to target the elimination program.
“But that means that he didn’t really look at what this program does,” she said. “Because who does not want grandmother to be safe online? Who does not want a veteran to speak to their doctor rather than get into a car and drive two hours? Who does not want students to do their homework?”
Ortatay reported to San Francisco.