![]() ![]() We are talking about millions of real life, low-income families that could benefit from this access.ĭon’t believe me? I’ll prove it to you. But this isn’t a theoretical question for a college course. It would be one thing if this was an academic exercise. Can the families in the neighborhoods near schools and libraries connect to the Internet connections that are right there, across the street, sitting idle all evening long? ![]() In the real world, it’s a little more complicated than that, but this is basically what we are talking about. The E-rate funding program provides support for student “A” to have a Wi-Fi signal on school grounds however, if student “B”, across the street at home, were to use that same Wi-Fi signal, the school would be required to allocate out a portion of its E-rate support and return the funds – even though it doesn’t cost the E-rate program any more money for the off-campus student’s connection. At least it is for me, and I do this for a living! Let’s try again with the “a picture is worth a 1,000 words” approach. Some of this can be a little difficult to conceptualize. That is the proposal that the FCC is considering right now. But those safeguards can still be achieved, while, at the same time, opening the door for schools and libraries to open their networks to the community. guarding the financial integrity of the program). As you might imagine, there was good intent behind this regulation (i.e. ![]() Unfortunately, there stands today a regulatory wall that prohibits the use of E-rate funded networks by students who are off-campus. For students, we call this the Homework Gap. As noted by Pew Research and others, there is a growing gap between those who have fast Internet (and the devices to use it), and those who don’t. The E-rate program has been largely responsible for connecting our nation’s schools and libraries to the Internet but those connections have been walled-off from the rest of the community by FCC regulations. ![]()
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