By Christopher Magan

Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

ST. PAUL — Minnesota needs to make a substantial investment in broadband Internet infrastructure if students and businesses in rural areas are going to compete with the rest of the nation, DFL lawmakers said Tuesday.

Speaker Paul Thissen said $25 million in the House’s supplemental spending bill would be a down payment on $100 million worth of Internet infrastructure that is needed to better connect Minnesotans.

“As we traveled around the state there was clear interest in this,” Thissen said at a news conference with students and educators. “It’s one of the first things that people talk about.”

The Senate’s version of the supplemental budget leaves out broadband funding, something Thissen hopes will change as the bill is considered in conference committee.

A recent study by the nonprofit ConnectMN and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development found 93 percent of Twin Cities residents have access to broadband. But just 46 percent of outstate residents have comparable high-speed Internet access.

State Rep. Erik Simonson, DFL-Duluth, and chief sponsor of the broadband infrastructure bill, said the disparity in Internet access puts rural businesses and schools at a disadvantage.

“This bill is really about economic development,” Simonson said.

Students from Mora High School described how they and their classmates sometimes struggled to complete assignments because of poor Internet access. One of them, Cassidy Carlisle, said high school seniors worried they would be unable to complete college and scholarship applications on time because of limited Internet access.