E-rate/Schools and Libraries Program
Ed-Tech Supporters Promise Innovations That Can Transform Schools. Teachers Not Seeing Impact
According to a new, nationally representative survey conducted by the Education Week Research Center, K-12 educators remain skeptical that new technologies will transform public schooling or dramatically improve teaching and learning. Fewer than one-third of America's teachers said ed-tech innovations have changed their beliefs about what school should look like. Less than half said such advances have changed their beliefs about how to improve students' academic outcomes. And just 29 percent felt strongly that ed-tech supports innovation in their own classrooms.
2019 Horizon Report -- Higher Education Edition
This report profiles six key trends, six significant challenges, and six developments in educational technology for higher education.
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The real digital divide isn’t about access to the Internet
The “digital divide” commonly refers to the question of who has access to the Internet, but at least when it comes to race and income, that gap is pretty insignificant. Policymakers are too busy bridging a fake divide to notice the real one right under their noses. The real divide is actually in time spent on screens, and there, the gap is enormous.
USAC to Commissioner O'Rielly: E-Rate Overbuilds Are OK
On April 1, Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) CEO Radha Sekar wrote to Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly to respond to his concerns that E-rate funds may be used to potentially overbuild fiber networks. Specifically, Commissioner O'Rielly had written to Sekar in March seeking answers as to whether government broadband subsidies should be used to subsidize wide area networks (WANS) where government subsidies have already been used to lay fiber as well as how many of those were being subsidized.
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Getting the E-Rate to Deliver the High-Speed Broadband Connections Schoolchildren Need
With enormous progress being made by the Federal Communications Commission’s 2014 E-Rate modernization, it became clear that some schools were nonetheless being left behind. As a result, Benton commissioned Improving the Administration of E-Rate: Ensuring All Schoolchildren Get the High-Speed Broadband Connections They Need to help the FCC make good on the 2014 reforms -- and ensure that every student, regardless of income or geography, had access to the same digital learning opportunities.
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Improving the Administration of E-Rate: Ensuring All Schoolchildren Get the High-Speed Broadband Connections They Need
A white paper written by Jonathan Sallet on behalf of Benton Foundation & EducationSuperHighway offering tangible steps that the Federal Communications Commission should take to instruct the Universal Service Administrative Company on how best to speed the approval of E-Rate projects that meet the legal requirements of the Telecommunications Act. The issues may seem arcane, bureaucratic, and/or legalistic. But they are important for two interlocking reasons.
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Chairman Pai’s Response to Sens Markey and Sullivan Regarding the FCC’s E-Rate Program
On March 7, Sens Ed Markey (D-MA) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to express concern about the transition by the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) to a new vendor for reviewing E-Rate applications. On March 28, Chairman Pai responded by saying "USAC recently migrated to a new Business Process Outsourcing vendor to perform certain administrative functions for the E-Rate program.
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A Needed USF Budgetary Cap
The Federal Communications Commission recently chose thoughtful and sensible policy reform when an item was circulated to Commissioners to begin a rulemaking that would establish a much-needed and overdue budget for the agency’s Universal Service Fund (USF). Against the backdrop of special interest groups and uninformed detractors reflexively opposed to any restraint on the agency’s redistributive subsidies, I am proud to lead this effort to inject more fiscal responsibility into the USF. Hardly a revolutionary idea, budgets are precisely what American families and businesses rely on to ma
Reaction to FCC Proposal to Cap USF
Washington policymakers and advocates are reacting to news that the Federal Communications Commission will propose to cap the Universal Service Fund.
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks took to Twitter: "How can we talk about capping our Universal Service programs at a time when the Commission doesn’t seem to have a good handle on who currently has broadband and who does not?"
Why is the FCC Talking about a USF Cap?
The Benton Foundation unequivocally opposes any proposals from the Federal Communications Commission that would allow the FCC to shirk its responsibilities to meet its Congressionally-mandated mission. The FCC is supposed to ensure: