September 2016

The Federal Communications Commission has taken action to address the Homework Gap, but we need to do more—and I believe that more takes place at the state and local level. We need to tap into the creative efforts to bridge the Homework Gap in communities across the country—and make sure that federal policy supports these efforts.

The State Education Technology Directors Association report calls attention to some of these local initiatives. As we wrestle with the new challenges of technology, access, and equity, local solutions deserve federal support. Cooperative policymaking between state and federal authorities is the way forward—just like it has always been the way to tackle our hardest and most intractable problems. By working together we can bridge the Homework Gap and close the cruelest part of the digital divide. And when we do we are going to be able to turn all of our students—all of our students—into not just digital consumers but digital creators. We are going to build a better education system, a stronger economy, and a brighter future.

Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Ajit Pai sent a letter to Chris Henderson, CEO of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), requesting information on Lifeline subscribers on tribal lands, including: any maps of qualifying tribal lands USAC may use to verify eligibility for the enhanced subsidy; certifications from subscribers that they reside on tribal lands; wireless resellers; and inclusion of a subscriber's eligibility in the National Lifeline Accountability database. Commissioner Pai also asked for information on investigations, audits, or reviews that USAC has conducted from October 2014 to the present that examined whether a wireless carrier sought enhanced subsidies only for eligible subscribers living on tribal lands, specific information about USAC’s checks to detect fraud and information regarding subscribers and provision of Lifeline on Oklahoma tribal lands.

[Commentary] Anyone who has followed this election carefully would be forgiven for thinking that voters have diverged into two separate realities. But it’s too soon to declare that we have entered a “post-fact” apocalypse, especially when we consider where people get information about politics. New research shows that the great majority of people learn about political news from mainstream, relatively centrist media sources, not ideological websites or cable channels. However, relatively small numbers of partisans, especially Republicans, are heavy consumers of a highly polarized media diet. This dynamic helps explain why there is so much concern about “echo chambers,” even though most people don’t confine themselves to one. This, then, is the paradox of echo chambers: Few of us live in them, but those who do exercise disproportionate influence over our political system.

[Brendan Nyhan is a professor of government at Dartmouth College.]