LITTLE ROCK — As the legislative session enters its stretch run, one of the state’s major needs is rarely discussed at the Capitol.
In many rural areas, residents have never successfully made the transition into the information age, and I would contend that a major reason is because they either don’t have access to or aren’t taking advantage of broadband Internet services.
Having access to broadband in even the most rural areas is as important now as getting electricity to those areas was in the previous century.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll note that I’m on the board of Connect Arkansas, a nonprofit, public-private partnership established by the Legislature in 2007. I serve because I believe in the power broadband access.
The legislation that created Connect Arkansas stated that the organization’s mission was “to prepare the people and businesses of Arkansas to secure the economic, educational, health, social and other benefits available via Internet use and also facilitate the availability of Internet service to every home and business in Arkansas.”
Arkansas Capital Corp. was given the task of managing Connect Arkansas. ACC, which has existed since 1957, was formed by the Legislature after a lobbying effort by Arkansas business leaders. Originally known as First Arkansas Development Finance Corp., the goal was to build the state’s economy by providing capital and finding entrepreneurs.
These business leaders viewed the organization as an instrument for financing the transformation from an agricultural to an industrial economy. The company would be privately owned but would not provide its owners with any profit on their investments. The 1957 act declared that the state could invest money in the company.
Sam Walls, the current chief executive officer, says it’s appropriate that ACC be asked to manage Connect Arkansas given the company’s history.
“Though initially we did not fully understand all the ramifications of the initiative, we have since educated ourselves and now carry with us the deep passion for its mission that is characteristic of converts to a life-changing cause,” he says.
Connect Arkansas isn’t in the business of providing infrastructure. A key word in the enabling legislation is “facilitate.”
“Connect Arkansas is technology and vendor neutral,” Walls says. “We work with all providers as they are the means to achieving our goals of empowering our citizens. This technology has been referred to as the most transformative technology since the advent of electricity. As I have now been involved with Connect’s mission for the past four years, I have come to understand and agree with the accuracy of that statement.”
Last year, it was announced that Connect Arkansas will receive about $1 million per year from the federal government for the next four years. There’s considerable matching money required, however. Connect Arkansas also needs funds for an aggressive Internet adoption program in all of the state’s 75 counties.
Recent research conducted by Connect Arkansas found that 47 percent of those surveyed said they don’t use the Internet because they find no relevance to their lives.
“For Arkansas, the Internet offers a once-in-a-lifetime, game-changing capability if embraced,” says Walls. “But we are doomed to suffer if we don’t. Health information, ‘telemedicine,’ government access and education initiatives are intertwined with Connect Arkansas’ mission. The benefits promised by those efforts are significantly diminished without a population that’s digitally engaged.”
For Connect Arkansas to achieve its goals, a commitment on the part of the state will be required. Legislators should study the Great Depression and compare it to today. About 90 percent of those who lived in America’s cities had electricity by the 1930s. In rural areas, though, only about 10 percent had it. There was the widespread belief that most farmers were simply too poor to afford electricity.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed that all Americans should have access to reliable electric service. In 1935, he issued an executive order to create the Rural Electrification Administration. Congress authorized the agency in 1936 and made it a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1939.
By 1939, there were 417 rural electric cooperatives serving 288,000 U.S. households. REA’s work also encouraged private utilities to expand their services. By the end of the 1930s, more than 30 percent of rural homes had electricity. By the early 1970s, 98 percent of rural homes had it.
(The REA was abolished in 1994, and its functions were assumed by the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service.)
In the years following World War II, the rural South began closing the huge gap with the rest of the country in average per-capita income. Because of electricity, residents of the rural South were able to buy fans, and later air-conditioners. Electricity helped them come out of the dark and the heat.
In recent decades, the progress slowed as the gap in per-capita income began to widen again. One reason was the lack of broadband use and access. It’s an issue that legislators should move to the front burner in the final weeks of the session.
“Connect’s mission is to facilitate the immersion of the people of Arkansas into the utilization of this technology,” Walls says. “This is a formidable task as national surveys place us 48th in adoption. . . .
“The Internet is not coming. It’s here, and the world has moved to it. It’s my personal belief that if we’re successful in reducing the current level of disinterest, we could in asingle generation leapfrog from our consistent rankings in the 40s to the middle of the pack.” -
Free-lance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities.
Editorial, Pages 18 on 02/26/2011