FCC sets $2 billion amount on school broadband investment

Last week, Speed Matters reported that President Obama and two FCC officials publicly stated their support for E-Rate, the federal program that funnels development money to high-speed broadband for school and libraries.

In a talk at a suburban Maryland middle school, Obama told students why ConnectED – the program to bring 99 percent of America’s students high-speed broadband Internet within five years – is essential.

“So today,” he said, “the average American school has about the same Internet bandwidth as the average American home, but it serves 200 times as many people...  Only around 30 percent of our students have true high-speed Internet in the classroom. In countries like South Korea, that’s 100 percent.  We shouldn’t give that kind of competitive advantage over to other countries.”

This week, the FCC revealed that the support was more than just talk. In fact, it will pour $2 billion over the next two years into high-speed Internet, with the money coming from E-Rate reform. As the commission says, “This represents a doubling of investment in broadband and will connect 20 million students in at least 15,000 schools to high-speed Internet access.”

FCC Chair Tom Wheeler laid out the commission goals:

“This investment is a down-payment on the goal of 99 percent of America’s students having high-speed Internet connections within five years. As we consider long-term improvements to the program, we will take immediate steps to make existing funds go farther, significantly increasing our investment in high-speed Internet to help connect millions of students to the digital age.”

And in a speech at National Digital Learning Day, Wheeler emphasized how it was important to begin these actions now.

“Everything I just described can begin immediately, starting with the applications in the FY 2014 program that are coming in now and will be completed by the end of March. Under the existing rules we will use improved management and oversight to accelerate the use of funds to enable high-speed connectivity for our schools and libraries. We believe these immediate common sense steps can double the funding of high-speed broadband over the next two years.”

Speed Matters fully supports the nation’s efforts to extend high-speed broadband to our publicly funded learning institutions.

Read the FCC news release here.

E-Rate scores big (Speed Matters, Jan. 30, 2014)

FCC to invest additional $2 billion in high-speed internet in schools and libraries (FCC news release, Feb. 3, 2013)

Remarks by the President on ConnectED (White House, Feb. 4, 2014)

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's Remarks at National Digital Learning Day (FCC, Feb. 5, 2014)