The Importance and Effectiveness of the E-Rate Program

An important aspect of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s work has focused on schools and libraries. As far back as 1995, Benton published The Learning Connection: Schools in the Information Age, examining how educators were grappling with the difficult interplay of technological change and educational values. We began by reviewing the potential for technology-driven education reform and outlining an agenda for building the human infrastructure of the Information Age by addressing such issues as content, curriculum reform, professional development, assessment, equity, and community involvement. The following year—thanks to the leadership of Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Representative Ed Markey (D-MA)—President Bill Clinton signed into law the bipartisan Telecommunications Act of 1996, which took the bold step of creating the “E-Rate program” to connect schools and libraries to the internet. The goals of this immensely successful program are just as vital today as the day the Act was signed—helping to connect every school and library to high-speed broadband, every classroom to Wi-Fi, and every student to digital learning opportunities. When the E-rate was first conceived, just 4 percent of classrooms had access to the internet. By 1999, 95 percent of U.S. schools were connected to the internet. By 2014, almost all schools had some access to the internet but only 65% of schools had access to adequate broadband. This “connectivity gap” was especially acute in rural schools that may not have been able to afford the cost of broadband connections or may have had no choice at all as to what broadband provider to use.