Dive Brief:
- The Federal Communications Commission will expand its E-rate program to cover the purchase of Wi-Fi hotspots by schools and libraries following a 3-2 vote Thursday.
- For the commissioners in favor of expanding E-rate, the move is part of an effort to close the homework gap, in which students who lack home internet access fall behind their peers on schoolwork.
- The two dissenting commissioners, however, said broadening E-rate to this extent exceeds the FCC’s authority over the program, which was established by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. They also said they fear E-rate expansion could be an unsustainable use of taxpayer dollars, and that students might not use hotspots for educational purposes.
Dive Insight:
With the inclusion of hotspots in the list of products and services covered by the E-rate program, the FCC is adopting additional safeguards to ensure the devices are used for educational purposes, and that schools, libraries and service providers are audited for compliance with E-rate.
To guarantee hotspots are used for educational purposes, the commission will require schools to maintain and update their acceptable use policies to clearly state that these off-premises devices must be “integral, immediate and proximate to the education of students.”
The FCC will also complete audits of schools and libraries to address cases of waste, fraud and abuse of E-rate funding. Any school that uses Wi-Fi hotspots through the E-rate program could be subject to an audit or investigation over, for instance, what equipment and services are eligible for federal funding and how they may be used.
E-rate applicants’ hotspot budgets for schools will be partly based on their full-time student count as well as their category one discount rate, according to the FCC. This will allow for “fair and equitable” limits on schools when requesting hotspots and services that will also provide wireless internet services to students and school staff “when it is needed most,” the FCC said.
Just before the E-rate hotspot expansion was approved, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel reflected on how the COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the breadth of the digital divide nationwide. She noted how, at the height of the public health crisis, students had to linger outside of fast food restaurants “with laptops on their knees” just to access free Wi-Fi and do their homework.
“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,” Rosenworcel said. “Or we can go forward and build a digital future that works for everyone.”
Rosenworcel added that the inclusion of hotspots will fit within the existing E-rate budget, meaning that it will not require more dollars from the federal government.
Additionally, the Children’s Internet Protection Act applies to Wi-Fi hotspots paid for through the E-rate program. Because of that law, schools and libraries will have to block or filter internet access to content that is harmful to minors.
The E-rate expansion follows the sunsetting of several COVID-era federal programs that helped students and families connect to home internet services earlier this year.
June 30 signaled the expiration of the Emergency Connectivity Fund, a $7.2 billion federal pandemic relief program formed by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Through the Emergency Connectivity Fund, the FCC provided over $123 million to schools and libraries to purchase Wi-Fi hotspots.
Another federal initiative known as the Affordable Connectivity Program gave $30 monthly discounts to eligible low-income families to connect to broadband at home. That program also ended this year, and it connected 3.1 million families of students who receive free or reduced-price school meals.
In October, the FCC approved an expansion of E-rate to cover Wi-Fi on school buses as another way to help address the digital divide for students. That move has since sparked a pending lawsuit in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where petitioners say the FCC’s school bus Wi-Fi initiative will enable unsupervised social media access by students, and that it exceeds the commission’s authority to provide internet access in schools and libraries. Several Republican lawmakers have voiced support for the lawsuit challenging the FCC.
Before voting against the expansion of E-rate to include hotspots on Thursday, FCC Commissioner Brandon Carr also mentioned the lawsuit and his concerns with the latest initiative. He added that the Emergency Connectivity Fund’s future is up to Congress, not the FCC.
School district leaders, however, have expressed support for the program, with organizations like AASA, The School Superintendents Association, among those backing the FCC’s initiatives to address the digital divide.
“Today’s vote allows the E-Rate program to continue its important work in ensuring our nation’s schools and libraries are able to offer our 24-hour learners 24-7 access to broadband,” said David Schuler, AASA’s executive director, in a statement.
