Closing the Connectivity Gap

President Barack Obama said this nearly a year ago during his announcement of the ConnectED initiative, a plan to equip every school in the United States with high-speed Internet access by the end of the decade.

According to Open Technology Institute analysts Danielle Kehl and Sarah Morris, “nearly sixty percent of schools in the US today lack sufficient wireless capacity to support the needs of students” -- a somewhat alarming statistic when compared to the vastness of 21st century connectivity. This problem is exacerbated by a lack of E-rate initiative funds, a program that helps schools and libraries to obtain affordable communications services and broadband Internet.

In an effort to narrow this connectivity divide, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler recently characterized the wireless Internet issue as a national priority. He recently released his draft order for E-rate modernization, which would implement a number of changes to the program by the summer of 2014 -- including increasing funding by $2 billion.

According to Lindsey Tepe, a program associate in New America’s Education Policy Program, the order highlights three main objectives:

• Closing the Wi-Fi gap for schools and libraries, while phasing down support for non-broadband services.
• Making current funds go further by cutting back the matching fund ratio, as well as increasing transparency on how funds are currently spent.
• Updating program administration processes to make the program faster, simpler, and more efficient.