EducationSuperHighway

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.

EducationSuperHighway released Compare & Connect K-12, a new free tool that CEO Evan Marwell says will help provide high-speed broadband at lower costs for school leaders looking to amp up students’ digital access. In order to allow districts to compare their options, EducationSuperHighway first needed to gather the data school leaders wanted. They turned to E-rate, the $3.9 billion Federal Communications Commission (FCC) program that helps 96 percent of schools get more affordable broadband.

Public schools can apply for annual funding through E-rate, which involves itemizing the services they currently pay for, what providers they are buying from and how much they are spending for their broadband. But all of that data was kept private. That is, until researchers at EducationSuperhighway closely examined the program back in 2012. The Commission was hesitant to give up the data. So instead, EducationSuperHighway collected the data they wanted from thousands of districts themselves. That alone was enough to convince all five commissioners of just how valuable the data could be, Marwell said, and in 2014 the FCC ultimately agreed to publicly release its information on what kind of broadband service school districts are getting and how much they pay for it. Now, Compare & Connect K-12—which maps the 2015 and 2016 E-rate application data—allows administrators, state leaders and even service providers to compare bandwidth speeds and broadband prices against school districts nearby or across the country.