Education technology

As a full-time law student, I spend much of my day online doing schoolwork and sometimes taking classes. Many of my finals are take-home exams that require an internet connection. If not for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), I would have to take these classes and exams at the library or a coffee shop, where the environment could be very disruptive.

In early 2020, as the coronavirus spread, schools around the world abruptly halted in-person education. To many governments and parents, moving classes online seemed the obvious stopgap solution. In the United States, school districts scrambled to secure digital devices for students. Almost overnight, videoconferencing software like Zoom became the main platform teachers used to deliver real-time instruction to students at home.

What do carrots, digital equity, and helping the environment have in common? In 2019, the US generated 7 million tons of electronic waste, with millions of computers, phones, and other internet-enabled devices going to landfills. These staggering numbers are not only a serious environmental concern, but a missed opportunity. As advocates and policymakers work to connect the last 20% of unconnected Americans, a significant obstacle is a lack of affordable devices.

As of mid-August 2023, nearly 20 million American households have enrolled for the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) – a federal program that’s provided affordable internet to our country’s most vulnerable and enabled them to stand a chance at competing in the quickly digitizing world. However, only 

Two key Republican lawmakers are opposing a Federal Communications Commission proposal that would expand the E-rate program to allow it to pay for Wi-Fi on school buses and mobile hotspots that schools can loan out to students.

The Federal Communications Commission committed more than $68 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) Program, which provides digital tools and services to support students in communities across the country. The funding commitment supports applications from the third application window, benefitting approximately 110,000 students nationwide, including students in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Indiana, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico.

The Federal Communications Commission committed $46.3 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which provides digital tools and services to support students in communities across the country. The funding supports applications from the third application window, benefitting approximately 125,000 students nationwide, including students in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington. The funding will support approximately 250 schools and school districts, 13 libraries and library systems, and 2 consortia.

E-Rate is the forgotten child of the universal service family. While commentators and Congress have spilled significant ink examining the government’s broadband build-out and affordability initiatives, E-Rate has been quietly subsidizing broadband service to schools and libraries for a quarter century. Promoting community connectivity and education is a worthwhile policy goal.

The Federal Communications Commission committed nearly $29 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which provides digital tools and services to support students in communities across the country. The commitment supports applications from the third application window, benefitting approximately 65,000 students nationwide, including students in California, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.

Colleges are seeing a surge in technology majors, but rural students are lagging behind on opportunities to take advantage of the growing, high-paying fields. From 2018 to 2022, Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services majors increased 23 percent, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, from 423,315 to 518,844. Rural students, however, face two pressing issues: the digital divide of internet reliability and technology access and education opportunities. The National Center for Education Statistics said that in 2019, around 76 percent of rural students