FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed using federal funding for WiFi in school buses this week. If adopted, the proposal would clarify that use of WiFi, or similar access point technologies, on school buses serves an educational purpose and the provision of such service is therefore eligible for E-Rate funding.
“While we’ve made progress getting many more families connected through our various broadband funding programs, the Homework Gap is still a hard fact of life for millions of schoolchildren in urban and rural America,” said Rosenworcel. “Wiring our school buses is a practical step we can take that is consistent with the history of the E-Rate program. This commonsense change could help kids who have no broadband at home.”
The E-Rate program allows eligible schools and libraries to request universal service support for broadband connectivity services to and within schools and libraries. Over the years, the Commission says it’s received many requests from E-Rate stakeholders asking that WiFi on school buses be made eligible for the money to enhance broadband access to students.
Using the funding for this purpose is consistent with the Commission’s past decisions regarding other eligible off-campus uses of E-Rate-supported services. The draft Declaratory Ruling directs the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau to include funding for WiFi on buses in establishing E-Rate eligible services for the upcoming funding year.
Funding for WiFi on school buses is already covered under the Emergency Connectivity Fund program, a temporary plan that Congress mandated as part of COVID-19 relief measures. To date, the Commission has committed more than $35 million in funding through that program for the purchase of WiFi hotspots and broadband services for school buses. The Declaratory Ruling finds that any potential impact of funding WiFi on school buses would be limited compared to the substantial benefit reaped by students, noting that demand in the E-Rate program has been substantially lower than the funding cap in the last several years.
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