If remote learning taught IT professionals anything, it’s that students should be able to continue learning at home. However, the digital divide persists, forcing students with unreliable home internet to find alternative methods of completing their homework, like using a Taco Bell as a study hall. Fortunately, progress is being made.
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission approved final rules to allow schools and libraries to use E-Rate funds to provide students and families with Wi-Fi hotspots. Since 1997, E-Rate has been a resource for schools to obtain affordable telecommunications and internet access. Over time, it’s evolved to focus on supporting access to high-speed broadband to and within schools.
“It should be the standard practice that students or anyone who can’t afford internet at home can check out at Wi-Fi hotspot from their local library,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a public statement. “This update is how we’ll help close the homework gap and support folks on the wrong side of the digital divide so they can fully participate in modern civic and commercial life.”
Here are some details about the initiative and its safeguards:
- Wi-Fi hotspots and services are to be used for educational purposes only.
- The new rules would protect students by requiring compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which mandates the use of filters to keep students from accessing harmful material.
- A budget mechanism would limit the amount of support an applicant can request for hotspots and services over a three-year period.
“Today we have a choice,” said Rosenworcel. “We can go back to those days when people sat in parking lots to get a signal to get online and students struggling with the homework gap hung around fast food places just to get the internet access they needed to do their schoolwork. Or we can go forward and build a digital future that works for everyone.”
A leap forward
This resource is the latest effort from the FCC to help K12 schools expand digital access for students. Last month, the commission adopted $200 million for a cybersecurity pilot program that would give the commission data about which services and equipment would best help schools address growing cyber threats and attacks against their networks.
The funds would not come from the E-Rate program, although leaders have argued for years that network security and management products and services should qualify.
Also new this month, the Biden-Harris administration announced several commitments to advance “public interest technology,” including nearly $1.5 million from the Kapor Foundation to promote responsible, equitable and ethical AI systems.
You can view each of those announcements here.
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