We Got Millions of Low-Income Students and Families Online Before Funding Expired. Restoring It Is Essential.

It’s a familiar scene in communities across the nation: teenagers lingering outside fast-food restaurants and inside malls with laptops on their knees, surfing for free public Wi-Fi to be able to do their homework. Some 17 million students across the nation don’t have internet service at home, hampering their ability to study and complete assignments and prepare themselves for college and the workforce. The learning deficit caused by unequal internet access has only worsened since the pandemic shifted so much learning online. One possible solution is rooted in a great policy success of recent years. In 1996, Congress developed the E-Rate program to bring internet service to every school and library in this country, so that students everywhere—not just those in high-income neighborhoods—could benefit from the internet revolution. On July 18 the Federal Communications Commission will vote on rules to modernize the E-Rate program to support loaning Wi-Fi hotspots through libraries nationwide—deciding whether to make permanent some of the most successful technological access efforts passed out of necessity during the pandemic. The pandemic proved that we all benefit from access to high-speed internet service, no matter who we are or where we live. So whether it is trying to revive the just-lapsed Affordable Connectivity Program or modernizing E-Rate, we need to pursue every avenue to ensure connectivity and opportunity for all.

[Jessica Rosenworcel is chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission. Edward Markey is a U.S. senator who represents Massachusetts.]