By: Kaleb Gillock
Kimt 3 News
09/27/2018

A new survey has been released saying that voters, regardless of their party affiliation, are calling on change for those in rural communities.

OSAGE, Iowa – Seventy-two percent of voters believe it is time for the government to “step it up” when it comes to providing internet to Americans in rural communities.

That’s according to a new survey from Connect Americans Now.

In 2017, the Federal Communications Commission awarded nearly $1.5-billion to the effort. However, states like Missouri and Illinois received a large portion of that.

Josh Byrnes tells KIMT it is time for action especially when it comes to avoiding the digital divide in the education field.

“Students are being sent home with laptops, they have assignments they have to do online. You don’t want to get into a situation of the haves and the have nots, and you don’t want to have a school district where these kids live over in this section, so they can’t do their homework at home because they don’t have the connectivity but these kids over here do,” said Byrnes.

Byres also added that if the rural communities were to receive broadband connections, it could be utilized as an economic development tool to draw business and professionals to Iowa.

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