Clyburn stumps for Lifelife, E-Rate

Acting FCC Chair Mignon Clyburn issued a strong statement in support of the country’s Lifeline program. Many low-income Americans, she said, simply cannot afford market-rate telephone service.

“Ensuring access to communications for all Americans, regardless of income, is why Lifeline was launched in 1985 during the Reagan Administration, and why this commitment was codified by Congress in 1996. And that’s why the FCC has modernized and reformed Lifeline for today’s world of mobile communications while looking forward to the next challenge: providing affordable access to broadband.”

Today, speaking at a conference on education technology, Clyburn talked about the upgrading of the E-Rate program. She told the conferees at Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands:

“Simply put, our schools need faster high-capacity connections, and they need them now. This summer, when we launched a modernization of E-Rate, the FCC took an important step toward ensuring that our schools and libraries have the tools they need to support modern digital learning.”

She called E-Rate one of the FCC’s biggest success stories and said, “As a result of E-rate, nearly every U.S. library and school is connected to the Internet.”

Nevertheless, she said, it hasn’t been good enough. “… in a 2010 FCC survey of schools and districts, nearly half of respondents reported lower speed Internet connectivity than the average American home. Similarly, 41 percent of libraries reported that their connectivity was inadequate, and fewer than 10 percent of America's libraries offer Internet speeds of 100Mbps or faster.”

To remedy this, Clyburn directed her remarks beyond the policy makers at the conference. “I'm talking,” she said, “about innovators from Silicon Valley, researchers, businesses, community leaders, and other stakeholders, who may not receive E-Rate funding, but who have valuable information that will help the Commission ensure that all of America's children will be prepared with the skills to enter and contribute to the digital economy.”

Speed Matters supports both the Lifeline and E-Rate programs.

Statement From Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn On Lifeline Awareness Week (FCC, Sep. 9, 2013)

Connected in the Digital Age: Improving American Education through Technology (Clyburn, FCC, Sep. 10, 2013)