Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Supervisor Don Horsley, District 3
Supervisor Warren Slocum, District 4
Subject: Resolution to support a Digital Bill of Rights that will increase digital equity for all residents in San Mateo County
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution to support a Digital Bill of Rights that will increase digital equity for all residents in San Mateo County.
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BACKGROUND:
In March 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic caused both state and local shelter-in-place to begin and schools to resort to distance-learning for their students. The pandemic highlighted and intensified a problem for our most vulnerable communities - that internet access was not available to all and that the digital divide was real and pervasive. These deserts of affordable and reliable connectivity threaten quality of life and education, creating two classes of citizens - the haves and the have-nots - on opposite sides of a digital divide.
DISCUSSION:
Although San Mateo County has taken steps to alleviate the digital divide, it still stands that we as a County cannot allow residents to have spotty internet access in an age when good internet accessibility is as ubiquitous, for most, as postal service and electricity.
The lack of reasonably priced and dependable internet access - the kind of high-speed access that allows students to connect to their remote classrooms and citizens to connect in a safe way to their family members or to telehealth - should be of top priority for state legislators.
According to an American Civil Liberties Union report "The Public Internet Option," 72% of white households have access to broadband, compared to 54% of African American households and 50% Hispanic households. Only 54% of households with incomes below $20,000 have home internet compared with 90% of households with above $100,000.
In California, the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF...
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