Education technology

The Federal Communications Commission will allow E-Rate funding to be used for Wi-Fi on school buses beginning in funding year 2024 as the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) program is set to sunset. The action enhances the benefits and the reach of the E-Rate program to ensure that the millions of students caught in the Homework Gap can more fully engage in their learning. The action clarifies that the use of Wi-Fi, or other similar access point technologies, on school buses serves an educational purpose and the provision of such service is therefore eligible for E-Rate funding.

Jason Kronemeyer, the Director of Technology at Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (EUPISD), has been relentlessly working towards enhancing educational outcomes in the region. Along the way, he grew into the role of a broadband champion. Jason's fervent desire to accelerate student learning, coupled with unconventional strategies of “connecting the dots” over decades have played an essential role in attracting infrastructure construction and driving broadband adoption.

The Federal Communications Commission committed $37.7 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which provides digital tools and services to support students in communities across the country. This funding commitment supports applications from the third application window, benefitting approximately 100,000 students nationwide, including students in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington. This funding commitment supports approximately 220 schools and school districts, 2 library systems, and 4 consortia.

Under the leadership of the White House, the Department of Education partnered with Civic Nation to launch the Online For All Campaign, bringing together a diverse coalition of supporting organizations to engage in local community action and large-scale mobilization efforts to ensure every household can get online.

I want to start by thanking the Subcommittee for its decision to provide full funding for the Federal Communications Commission in your Fiscal Year 2024 FSGG bill. The work of the FCC matters. I’d like to highlight some the Commission’s recent work, made possible by your support of our budget, under my leadership. First, the Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, the largest broadband affordability program in our nation’s history, now helps 21 million households pay for high-speed internet service.

According to a report in February from the policy research firm Public Policy Associates, 2.1 million more children had broadband access in 2021 than 2019, following efforts at the local, state and federal levels to narrow the digital divide for online education during COVID-19 school closures.

Educators and education-technology professionals worry that artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom could further widen digital inequities. The US Department of Education Office of Educational Technology's May 2023 "Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning" report warned that “algorithmic bias could diminish equity at scale with unintended discrimination." Further, it stated, "Bias is intrinsic to how AI algorithms are developed...and the department holds that bia

As a full-time law student, I spend much of my day online doing schoolwork and sometimes taking classes. Many of my finals are take-home exams that require an internet connection. If not for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), I would have to take these classes and exams at the library or a coffee shop, where the environment could be very disruptive.

In early 2020, as the coronavirus spread, schools around the world abruptly halted in-person education. To many governments and parents, moving classes online seemed the obvious stopgap solution. In the United States, school districts scrambled to secure digital devices for students. Almost overnight, videoconferencing software like Zoom became the main platform teachers used to deliver real-time instruction to students at home.

What do carrots, digital equity, and helping the environment have in common? In 2019, the US generated 7 million tons of electronic waste, with millions of computers, phones, and other internet-enabled devices going to landfills. These staggering numbers are not only a serious environmental concern, but a missed opportunity. As advocates and policymakers work to connect the last 20% of unconnected Americans, a significant obstacle is a lack of affordable devices.