Timing of $7 Billion E-Rate Expansion Has Education Advocates Eyeing Long-Term Connectivity Planning Over Quick Fixes

The latest COVID-19 relief package includes over $7 billion to expand E-rate to better tackle students’ at-home internet needs. But with the dollars doled out so far into the crisis and the end of the school year fast approaching, expectations for how the additional funding will be spent have shifted among school officials and advocates from getting quick fixes, like mobile hotspots, to more long-term projects that will ensure that schools can sustain the progress they’ve made to become more digital-learning friendly. “This is a down payment on something that the education community has fought for for years,” said Reg Leichty, policy counsel for CoSN, which represents school district technology leaders. “Even outside of a pandemic, we now live in a moment where access to online resources and enrichment activities should be part of even a normal school year.” For most of the pandemic, schools have relied mostly on outside partnerships and community donations to get their students online, said Amina Fazlullah, policy counsel at Common Sense Media.  “Without a coordinated support program from the federal government that was focused on technology and distance learning, schools were at the mercy of whatever options were in their communities, and sometimes these were promotional options that would only last for a handful of months,” Fazlullah said. “There’s been so much uncertainty in what the resources would be available for schools to tap into to be able to plan.”