FCC Passes E-Rate Review Despite Opposition
The E-Rate funding proceeding was controversial during last week’s FCC meeting. Agency officials said the proposed changes would better protect children by limiting screen time. The E-Rate program provides support to ensure that schools and libraries can obtain affordable broadband services and internet connections.
The Commission passed a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on screen time and the Commission’s progress in ensuring affordable access to high-speed broadband to and within schools and libraries. It wants to ensure the program funds are used correctly.
Opponents of the proposals, a coalition of educators, librarians, and advocacy organizations such as the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and Public Knowledge, oppose the cutbacks. They argue that internet access is a necessity and that these FCC rollbacks threaten to severely widen the digital divide for low-income and rural students.
One of the questions the agency seeks public input on is whether the E-rate program should be narrowed or ended. That point caught the attention of Commissioner Anna Gomez, who partially approved it and partially dissented during the vote. “Beneath the stated concern about screen time lies speculative and unwarranted proposals including whether the Commission should terminate the program or dramatically limit the scope to only rural areas or areas served by a single provider.” Gomez said the proposals reflect “a fundamental misunderstanding of the challenges schools and libraries face today.”
Gomez noted that policy makers, including some in the administration, have identified national leadership in AI as an urgent priority. The Department of Education has affirmed that learning how to use AI is essential to ensuring Americans are competitive in a rapidly evolving workforce and that students must be taught how to use AI safely and effectively.”
That can’t be done, she said, if the FCC strips away the digital tools needed to meet those goals.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said, “Over the last decade, school districts across the country experimented with a massive increase in screen time for students. By Grade 8, more than 50 percent of kids report using computers in all or almost all classes, up from 30 percent in 2019.”
But with that increase has come a drop in reading and math skills, he said. Carr noted that because of this trend, school districts are limiting or even banning screen time.
Because of this, “It’s appropriate for the FCC to look at its own programs.”
Carr said when E-Rate began in 1997, “it had a clear focus, supporting basic internet access to schools and libraries for educational purposes. Kids could experience digital opportunity for the first time in computer labs at school or at the library. Since then, however, the E-Rate program has expanded exponentially, supporting a much broader list of services.”
The agency is asking “questions that will allow us to ensure that the program continues to support educational opportunity while also considering whether additional safeguards, refinements, or updates are needed to better protect kids online,” Carr said. “We seek comment on whether the program should be reoriented in light of all of the above developments.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
