President Obama seeks legacy of Internet in every school

The Obama Administration says it is on track to meet its goal of ensuring that every school has high-speed Internet within five years.

President Obama unveiled the broadband initiative in 2013 and urged the independent Federal Communications Commission to expand a program that subsidizes Internet access with the goal of wiring 99 percent of schools. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced this spring that the agency would vote to modernize E-Rate rules before school starts back up in September. He said the FCC would likely discontinue E-Rate funding for outdated technologies, such as pagers and cooper telephone networks, and instead use that money to build out broadband and Wi-Fi. The FCC has already reallocated $2 billion of unused E-Rate funds for school broadband projects, but some Democrats on Capitol Hill think more funding is needed. The FCC is also looking at changing how it prioritizes grant funding for schools.

Richard Culatta, director of the Office of Educational Technology within the Department of Education, said he supports the FCC’s efforts to look for existing funding before generating more through rate increases. “If we just throw more money at an inefficient system, that’s not good,” said Culatta. “What the FCC has done makes a lot of sense. There are a bunch of process changes that can be made to shift money before they spend anymore.”