Obama: Let there be broadband

“In a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, why shouldn't we have it in our schools?” President Obama asked students and teachers at a middle school in North Carolina yesterday.

The president was stumping for his latest initiative to ensure that all the nation’s students have high-speed Internet in their classrooms. That measure is called ConnectED which, said the White House, “is to bring high-speed Internet connections to 99 percent of America’s students," and which the president “is calling on the FCC to do within five years.”

Obama laid out an immediate vision of available, high-speed technology – one that replaces the dated and worn books that some students are forced to use. He said:

“I want to see a tablet that's the same price as a textbook. I want to see more apps that can be instantly updated with academic content the day it's available, so you don't have old outdated textbooks with student names still in them from years ago.”

Obama deplored the level of Internet that many schools contend with. As the White House said:

“... the average school has about the same level of connectivity as the average home, even though the average school has 200 times more people. Thousands of schools don’t even have the bandwidth to stream two videos into their school at the same time.”

ConnectED seeks, “to modernize and leverage the successful E-Rate program for school connectivity in order to make a major capital investment in high-speed Internet connections and employ them for connected classrooms... Under ConnectED the Department of Education will also work with schools and district to better use existing federal funding to train teachers on this transformational technology.”

Speed Matters has long urged federal aid for Internet-supported education, and backs the president’s new initiative.

Obama: All schools should have Internet (USA Today, Jun. 6, 2013)

Bringing America’s Students into the Digital Age (White House, Jun. 6, 2013)

Obama: U.S. schools need high-speed internet (CNN, Jun. 6, 2013)