California has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to empower minority entrepreneurs. In early 2024, the state will start investing $2 billion to build high-speed broadband internet. As any entrepreneur will tell you, having broadband connectivity is essential to their success, and those without it are at a huge disadvantage. Yet while California has money to spend, there’s no guarantee it will connect the people who need it most.
In fact, there’s a real threat that the state wastes this enormous investment. If that happens, countless minority entrepreneurs will miss out on their dreams, hurting all of California.
This threat has been building since 2021, when Governor Newson and the state legislature created that $2 billion broadband fund. At the time, the COVID-19 pandemic was at its height. State leaders realized they needed to invest in broadband so everyone in California could access employment, education, health care, and everything else that had been pushed online. The lack of access is a real crisis: by some estimates nearly two million residents don’t have high-speed internet, along with huge numbers of small businesses. They need the state to help close the digital divide, and fast.
Two years later, the pandemic has faded, but the crisis of broadband access hasn’t, especially in minority communities. Among Hispanic and Asian households, for instance, the most recent data show that only 88% have broadband access. That’s hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom have either started small businesses or want to. These business owners and budding entrepreneurs need broadband internet to reach customers and compete on the national and international stages.
That’s where the $2 billion is supposed to come in. That money could close the digital divide, funding the construction of broadband infrastructure in every community that lacks it. Some cities don’t have 100% broadband access, although the bigger need is in rural parts of the state. Minority communities—Asian, Hispanic or otherwise—exist across California. Whether it’s Spanish in Los Angeles metro area, Inland Empire and the California-Mexico border counties, or Hmong in Yuba County, Chinese in Nevada County, Indians in Madera County, or Filipinos in Ventura County, everyone needs to be connected to broadband as soon as possible.
Will that dream become reality? Not if state leaders spend that $2 billion building broadband infrastructure where it already exists. Most of the applicants for the first tranche of funding are for projects in places that today have broadband networks. Some state officials are even on the record saying that’s where they want to spend the money.
But that’s the last place the state should focus on. The first place we should spend money is where broadband doesn’t exist. That’s where this funding will make the biggest difference and empower the most people. That’s where we can spark a new era of minority entrepreneurship.
We don’t have to imagine what will happen if more entrepreneurs get connected to broadband. Minority-owned businesses are some of the most dynamic in the state, and Asian-and Hispanic-owned businesses are a case in point. Historical Census data show Asian-owned businesses grow faster and have higher revenues than the average company, making them a powerful engine of job creation and community strength. If every Asian-owned business had broadband access, they’d boom like never before. So would our whole state.
What’s more, 100% broadband access opens the door to a host of new learning options for students. They can learn new skills, transform their education, and discover their entrepreneurial side. Building broadband today will empower minority entrepreneurs tomorrow—and for decades to come.
Extending broadband to the entire state is the single best way to unleash a new era of shared growth. But nothing will happen if California wastes money in places that already have broadband. Building redundant infrastructure in big cities won’t do anything for minority entrepreneurs, because they already have what they need to succeed.
California needs to focus fast on the communities and people who don’t have the broadband connection they deserve. With $2 billion to spend, Governor Newson and state leaders can’t let this golden opportunity slip away. The next generation of minority entrepreneurs are counting on them.
Pat Fong Kushida is president & CEO of the CalAsian Chamber of Commerce. Julian Canete is president & CEO of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce.