Here’s a terrific new policy brief from Common Sense Kids Action on the evidence that better Internet access for low-income American households would have significant benefits for education, healthcare, household incomes and the economy as a whole.

Most Americans assume everyone has access to high-speed Internet at home but the fact is that income disparity cause as much as 30 percent of American households to go without high-speed Internet connections.  The policy brief draws on multiple research sources to show that expanding broadband access helps to grow the Gross Domestic Product and personal incomes; that children would have greater educational opportunity, especially to do homework assigned on the Internet that many but not all children today can complete; and that teens and others would have greater opportunity to get health care advice online and save money on health expenses.