EducationSuperHighway 2018 State of the States report

EducationSuperHighway released its annual State of the States report highlighting the major progress that has been achieved to connect nearly every public school classroom to high-speed broadband. At the same time, the report cites the urgent need to close the digital divide for 2.3 million students across the nation who lack access to the minimum connectivity required for digital learning. The report credits strong bipartisan support from state policymakers for the progress made over the past five years. Since 2013, 49 governors have led the effort that has connected an estimated 40.7 million more students to next-generation broadband and, 21,600 more schools to fiber infrastructure. In 2018, 44.7 million students and 2.6 million teachers in more than 81,000 schools have the Internet access they need for digital learning.

The report also points out that reaching the goal of connecting 99 percent of America’s K-12 students is well within our reach. Nearly two million of the 2.3 million students who still do not have access to the Federal Communications Commission’s minimum standard of 100 kilobits per second (kbps) per student of Internet access are in just 62 school districts nationwide. Moreover, nearly 90 percent of these school districts can upgrade to the FCC’s goal without spending any more money.  More highlights from the 2018 State of the States Report:

• Only 1,356 schools still lack a fiber-optic connection or other scalable broadband infrastructure, down from 22,958 schools in 2013
• The cost of K-12 Internet access has declined 85 percent in the last five years
• Since 2015, the amount invested in Wi-Fi nearly doubled to $2.9 billion, but 7,823 school districts have over $1.4 billion in unused E-rate funds set to expire in 2019