California’s bungling bureaucrats symbolize everything that’s wrong with this country. These teeming, unelected officials have instituted draconian regulations and exorbitant fees and driven the Golden State to the brink of insolvency. And now these same geniuses want to wreak their own special brand of havoc upon Comcast’s incredibly successful Internet Essentials program (more info).
David Valladolid, national president and CEO of Parent Institute for Quality Education, and Darryl Adams, board secretary of the California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators, recently penned an opinion piece for the Contra Costa Times that spells out the issues.
The bureaucrats in California’s Public Utility Commission see Comcast’s merger with Time Warner Cable as their chance to implement their vision of what Internet Essentials should be.
Valladolid and Adams call the less-than-$10-per month Internet Essentials program “one of the most significant national programs for helping families with school age children afford Internet access and take advantage of the educational, economic, and social opportunities available online.”
We cannot disagree with their assessment. Internet Essentials is already bringing internet access to 1.8 million low-income Americans and more than 61,000 California families.
“As parents and educators,” Valladolid and Adams wrote, “we see how IE has been the most effective program to date in helping students and their families connect online.”
Now let’s get into the games being played by the California Public Utilities Commission. An administrative judge wants California, one of the nation’s most dysfunctional institutions, to stick its nose into the minutia of the program and mandate a dramatic expansion of the program in ways only a bureaucrat could consider wise.
Valladolid and Adams explains: “… the judge says the state should require that 45 percent of a much broader target population, including all households at 150 percent of the poverty line, subscribe to the program (even though Comcast has less than 45 percent market share in most markets in the state) — a goal most experts see as entirely unrealistic.”
In our opinion, it’s lunacy. Pure, unadulterated lunacy.
If the bureaucrats in California knew what they were doing, the state wouldn’t be in such dire financial straits. Internet Essentials has shown dramatic growth across the country and we doubt that more regulations and more red tape will improve an already glowing situation.
And this would surely be just the beginning. If California can demand one set of standards, what’s to stop every other state government from demanding its own unique set of rules and regulations? It won’t be long before we see Internet Essentials sinking under the weight of red tape.
Valladolid and Adams join us in hoping the PUC will back down. Instead of this bull in a china shop style of regulation, they suggest that the state Legislature for proper place for this to be debated, authorized and funded.”
Well said, gentlemen, well said.
Bmccoy says
So-oo much more information than I can understand ! Would some kid Please help an old person just get unlimited data via a Free WiFi for my cell phone ! I can’t afford to pay for data, but I reallllly need it as a home-bound disabled “Citizen” !!
lucio rodriguez says
I am retired and would like cheapInternet provider. Time warner is my provider and it is to
expensive for me,I live in brownsville texas and my home address is 420 north expressway
77 apt 26.Is no-one,other then TWC to serve this area . Oh my zip 78521