E-Rate Proposal Would Bring Millions More Students Wi-Fi, FCC Officials Say

The proposal would modernize a program that began when pagers were as popular as cellphones are today, but hasn’t kept up with technological changes, FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins said during a media call Tuesday, during which he said the changes would bring Wi-Fi to millions more students in schools. The plan, which the commission is set take up July 11, would close a Wi-Fi gap in which only 43 percent of public school districts report that their internal connections are capable of supporting a one-device-per-student deployment, according to an FCC report (http://bit.ly/1olwuk6) released with the news conference. Whereas rural areas have historically received a disproportionately small share of E-rate funds, the plan would increase Wi-Fi funding for rural areas by 75 percent, Wilkins said.

Part of Wheeler’s plan calls for closing the so-called Wi-Fi gap for connecting classrooms within schools by rethinking the two E-rate funds, agency officials have said (CD June 26 p5): Priority One, which pays for connections to schools, and Priority Two, which pays for connectivity within schools. Wheeler’s plan calls for continuing to fund Priority One, renamed Category One, through the $2.4 billion in E-rate funds, for each of the next five years. Priority Two, renamed Category Two, would be funded the first two years through $2 billion in unspent E-rate funds, at $1 billion each year. The third, fourth and fifth years would be funded through efficiencies, and the gradual elimination of funding for such things as voice mail, as well as efficiencies.

The problem, AASA and the National Education Association (NEA) said, is that it’s not assured the FCC will find that much in savings to fully fund Wi-Fi, and predicted the moves would produce only about $500 million a year for internal connections. The plan does not call for more money for connections to schools, although Ellerson predicted the demand will only increase. “How do you do internal connections in a school that doesn’t have it’s basic connections?” she said. AASA and NEA called for increasing the cap on E-rate, which has been stuck at $2.4 billion since the program’s inception, to increase funding for both funds.

Wheeler’s plan would not increase the cap and there’s no discussion at the commission about raising it, said Ellerson and Mary Kusler, director-government relations at NEA. “There is zero conversation” to raise the cap among commissioners, who are focusing on a “leap of faith” the savings will provide the $1 billion-a-year for connections within schools after the second year. FCC commissioners declined to comment, although Commissioner Ajit Pai has publicly said he would not support a plan that boosts E-rate’s budget. Even as he backed the proposal at the news conference, Bob Wise, president, Alliance for Excellent Education and former West Virginia governor, said that overall funding will eventually have to be increased. He called Wheeler’s plan a “good down payment.” The proposal “is probably one of the most significant gains in education in years,” Wise said.

'Not Acceptable’

Wheeler acknowledged at a panel discussion in Albuquerque Monday night that it “is not acceptable and it’s not good enough” that more schools need broadband connections. But Wilkins said closing the Wi-Fi gap was the most cost-effective way to address connections for schools and libraries. Noting no money was spent last year on Wi-Fi connections within schools, with the combination of directing the unused money, efficiencies and shifting funds from areas like voice, the plan would provide an additional 44 million students and 16,000 libraries to have access to Wi-Fi services by 2019, the FCC said in a news release.

"One of the key benefits of the [draft] E-rate order ... is that it will significantly expand access to Wi-Fi funding available for rural areas like Cibola County,” Wheeler wrote in a blog post (http://fcc.us/1mO4SEE) (CD July 1 p8) Monday, after a visit to the rural New Mexico county. Historically, urban areas have received nearly 60 percent of internal connections support despite serving under 30 percent of all students, “while rural applicants are crowded out,” he wrote. The plan would address the issue by imposing a set rate of $150-per pupil for school Wi-Fi funding, Wilkins said. Previously, with no limits, schools with higher poverty rates, which tend to be in more urban areas, would seek larger amounts of funding, an FCC official said. Because those schools get priority for the funds, they would use the entire available amount, the official said. From 2008 to 2013, E-Rate supported internal connections in just 4 to 11 percent of the more than 100,000 schools participating in the program each year, according to an FCC report released in conjunction with the news conference.

Under existing rules, rural schools on average receive 25 percent less Wi-Fi funding for every student, and 50 percent less funding for every school, compared with their non-rural peers, “because the current rules often put them at the back of the line,” the report said. Nebraska would get the biggest percentage increase, 5082 percent, in the number of additional students to get Wi-Fi in the next five years as compared with the previous five years, said a state-by-state breakdown in the report.

By creating the set cost per-pupil and increasing the amount contributed by schools, the urban schools would not use up all the funds, and all schools would receive funding at some point over the next five years, said an FCC official. The additional funds would increase Wi-Fi funding for urban and suburban schools by 60 percent, the FCC news release said. The rate-per-pupil brought criticism from Ellerson, who said the amount would not be enough to cover the cost of implementing Wi-Fi for many schools. The plan split library associations, with the American Library Association backing it at the news conference. Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, who now represents the Urban Libraries Council, which represents large libraries, continued to oppose the plan. During a phone conversation with Wheeler on Tuesday, Hundt said a funding formula envisioned under the plan would hurt large urban libraries, according to an ex parte filing Tuesday, not yet posted by the FCC.