E-rate/Schools and Libraries Program

Why pursue an overall Universal Service Fund (USF) budget and what benefit would it bring? First and foremost, a budget is necessary to protect the investments of ratepayers who pay for our programs. Second, a topline budget would force the Federal Communications Commission to consider the whole USF when increasing program spending. Third, an FCC running up against a cap would have greater incentive to eliminate inefficiencies that detract from achieving the program’s mission and value. Fourth and finally, a budget would help protect universal service. 

The Department of Education urged the Federal Communications Commission to maintain and modernize the current educational priority of the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum by keeping the current eligibility requirments for EBS licenses, modernizing the educational use requirement, and issuing new EBS licenses using local priority filing windows. 

On Friday, May 31, the Federal Communications Commission launched a proceeding to seek comment on establishing an overall cap on the Universal Service Fund (USF). USF programs provide subsidies that make telecommunications and broadband services more available and affordable for millions of Americans. The NPRM asks a lot of questions over how to cap the programs. But a crucial one we ask: Does this NPRM actually move the U.S. closer to closing the digital divide?

This report highlights the importance of state leadership and the various ways states strive to support districts and schools to achieve equitable digital learning opportunities for all students both on campus and outside of school. States demonstrate leadership through legislation, initiatives, partnerships, statewide broadband networks, regional networks, and/or statewide purchasing consortia to facilitate reliable, cost-effective internet access for districts. No one state has the same policies or practices, yet all are providing leadership

I know firsthand what it’s like living on the wrong side of the digital divide because my local community in rural Minnesota has been experiencing it for far too long. That is one of the reasons why I founded A Better Wireless, a wireless ISP that is seeking to connect rural Minnesotans who lack affordable broadband access. 

According to a new, nationally representative survey conducted by the Education Week Research Center, K-12 educators remain skeptical that new technologies will transform public schooling or dramatically improve teaching and learning. Fewer than one-third of America's teachers said ed-tech innovations have changed their beliefs about what school should look like. Less than half said such advances have changed their beliefs about how to improve students' academic outcomes. And just 29 percent felt strongly that ed-tech supports innovation in their own classrooms.

This report profiles six key trends, six significant challenges, and six developments in educational technology for higher education.

The “digital divide” commonly refers to the question of who has access to the Internet, but at least when it comes to race and income, that gap is pretty insignificant. Policymakers are too busy bridging a fake divide to notice the real one right under their noses. The real divide is actually in time spent on screens, and there, the gap is enormous.

On April 1, Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) CEO Radha Sekar wrote to Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly to respond to his concerns that E-rate funds may be used to potentially overbuild fiber networks. Specifically, Commissioner O'Rielly had written to Sekar in March seeking answers as to whether government broadband subsidies should be used to subsidize wide area networks (WANS) where government subsidies have already been used to lay fiber as well as how many of those were being subsidized.