Rosenworcel speaks out for E-Rate

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is a long-time champion of the nation’s 20 year-old E-Rate program. This week, in a blog in Huffington Post, she noted that E-Rate“... is the nation's largest education technology program. It helps schools and libraries in every state, by supporting access to modern communications and the Internet.”

But, while E-rate has helped connect more than 95 percent of U.S. classrooms, many of these connections are outdated. “Too many of our schools and libraries that rely on E-Rate – often in low-income and rural communities – access the Internet at speeds as low as 3 Megabits,” wrote Rosenworcel.

And that has real-world consequences. “That means too many schools are unable to offer high-definition streaming video, take advantage of the most innovative digital teaching tools, or provide modern science, technology, engineering, and math – STEM – Instruction.

On December 11, the FCC is voting on  whether to raise the E-Rate cap by $1.5 billion. Speed Matters and CWA fully support E-Rate, and asks our readers to urge the FCC to add the funding to help bring U.S. classrooms up to developed world standards.

A New Year, a Bolder and Better E-Rate (Huffington Post, Dec. 3, 2014)

CWA supports Wheeler’s $1.5 billion E-rate expansion (Speed Matters, Nov. 21, 2014)