The smart choice for smarter students

[Commentary] Eighteen years ago I coauthored, along with Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), a bipartisan initiative called E-rate. The E-rate program has been a resounding success, establishing basic connections to the Internet for 99 percent of our schools and libraries. Yet, basic connectivity is no longer sufficient. It is urgent we now upgrade every school and library to the gigabit broadband and Wi-Fi essential to fulfilling the promise of digital learning in the 21st century.

While South Korea replaces printed textbooks with connected devices, Singapore wires its schools to gigabit broadband, and Australia and New Zealand bring high-speed fiber to their rural schools, an astonishing 63 percent of America’s schools, representing nearly 40 million students, lack the necessary broadband speeds. We cannot countenance a new digital divide creating an opportunity divide for America’s young men and women. The proposal before the Federal Communications Commission is the smart choice for smarter children, and I can think of no better investment for the next generation -- and beyond.

[Olympia Snowe served as senator from Maine from 1995-2013]