Homework Gap Is Real and FCC Needs to Get Creative, Rosenworcel Says
The FCC needs to “get creative” to address the homework gap, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Monday at Digital Equity Summit 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. “Nightly schoolwork now requires internet access” and the homework gap “is real,” Rosenworcel said. She…
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cited Lee High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, where schools are lending wireless hot spots and computers to students who need them to do homework. Rosenworcel encouraged educators to make their voices heard in support of the E-rate program: “Make noise. Make a ruckus.” Under one proposal before the FCC, the E-rate and rural telemedicine programs “could share a single funding cap and slug it out for resources,” she said: “I do not support this approach. We have serious broadband problems in this country. And the FCC has a statutory duty to expand the reach of communications to everyone -- no matter who they are or where they live.” The FCC also needs “better data about where broadband is and is not so communities across the country can build on it to address the Homework Gap,” Rosenworcel said. She backed making more spectrum available for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use, and using spectrum auction proceeds to pay for better connections through a homework gap fund.