The Starting Block America Needs: High-Speed Broadband in Every School

[Commentary] The White House's report, Four Years of Broadband Growth, shines a light on what broadband expansion means for women and minorities across America. Education is the most important tool we have to serve low income communities, and 21st century students deserve 21st century technology in every school nationwide. It's encouraging to see the Federal Communications Commission pursue the modernization and expansion of E-Rate to support the communications needs of U.S. schools and libraries. This renewed focus by the FCC follows President Obama's announcement of a nationwide educational initiative, ConnectED, that will serve to outfit 99 percent of America's students (K-12) with high speed wired or wireless internet connectivity by 2018. To move this initiative forward, FCC Acting Chairwoman, Mignon Clyburn, publicly stated her support for modernizing and expanding the E-rate program to bring high-speed broadband to more U.S. schools and libraries, as well as creating new incentives for broadband service providers to deploy new fiber connections in communities with limited or no access to high-speed internet services.