E-rate subsidy could change nation?s classrooms

Although E-rate can’t take all the credit for changing how classrooms work, it’s had an enormous impact. The federal subsidy to schools and libraries arrived in 1996, when just 14 percent of classrooms and libraries were connected. Today, it’s 96 percent.

But backers in the FCC and Obama administration want to move E-rate to the next level:  “... phase out the days of the clunky computer lab and shift to putting technology directly into students’ hands all day [with] almost universal access to high-speed broadband with an emphasis on widespread wireless capability.”

How much bandwidth do schools need? There are a lot of numbers flying around, but it’s clear that many schools come up short: last month’s survey from the Consortium for School Networking said 43 percent of all school districts said their buildings didn’t meet minimum requirements.

So, the current debate is over how much and where to get the money. Unfortunately, according to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, “The size of the program was designed for the dial-up era. We need to design for the broadband era.”

But problems may lie with the E-rate structure itself. According to Politico, “Rosenworcel said she worries that E-Rate and all of its paperwork deters some of the most needy schools from applying — the very students the program targets.”

Nevertheless, this program, along with the administration’s ConnectED proposal, are essential to bringing America’s schools fully into the wired age. As Richard Culatta, director of the Office of Educational Technology at the Education Department, said, “We have to look at this as an opportunity to re-imagine and redesign learning.”

Speed Matters supports E-rate and ConnectED as a way to bring high-speed broadband to all students and library users.

Hope, hurdles ahead for school Internet subsidy (Politico, Nov. 19, 2013)

CoSN Survey Highlights Need for Greater E-rate Funding (Consortium for School Networking, October, 2013)

ConnectED: President Obama’s Plan for Connecting All Schools to the Digital Age (White House, 2013)