Four Steps Towards E-Rate Connectivity and Competition

A quarter-century ago, the idea of “educational technology” popularized the notion that children would benefit if computers in schools and libraries were connected to the internet. In 1996, Congress created the Federal Communications Commission’s E-Rate program, which provides discounts to libraries and K-12 schools to make broadband internet access more affordable. In 2014, the FCC modernized the program in order to bring more bandwidth, at competitive prices, to every school and library. In the succeeding years, K-12 schools have almost met the FCC’s 2014–15 short-term goal of fiber connections to every school, 100 Mbps per every 1,000 students and staff, and Wi-Fi in every classroom. But 1,356 schools across the nation still do not have access to sufficient broadband to meet the FCC’s short-term goal, which affects 2.3 million students. Even more students are impacted by the reality that only 28 percent to 32 percent of K-12 schools meet the FCC long-term goal of at least 1 Gbps per 1,000 students and staff. The progress of libraries is less certain; as of 2014, only 18 percent of public libraries had broadband connections delivering 1,000 Mbps (1 Gbps) or more; about 41 percent had service delivering 10 Mbps or less, the great majority of which was actually 1.5 Mbps or less.

But there’s more we can do to improve the effectiveness of the E-rate program.