The Federal Communications Commission is launching a review of the E-rate program, which funds K-12 broadband connectivity, to “ensure it fulfills Congress’s vision for great educational outcomes,” the agency announced on June 3.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will share a notice of proposed rulemaking, which aims to “empower parents,” strengthen the program’s integrity, streamline administration, and better protect children using services subsidized by the $3 billion annual E-rate program. The three-person commission is scheduled to discuss and vote on the notice on June 25.
The review comes amid a growing movement to address concerns about kids’ excessive screen time and technology use. Several state legislatures have passed or are considering bills that would limit students’ classroom screen time. Some school districts, such as Los Angeles and Canon-McMillan in Pennsylvania, are starting to reduce younger students’ classroom screen time.
“The important role that technology plays in schools should support learning, not distractions or declining performance,” Carr, a Republican, said in a statement.
If the notice of proposed rulemaking is approved, the FCC will be asking for public comment on whether parts of the E-rate program should be reexamined, including:
- Whether the agency is effectively expanding affordable, high-speed broadband access in schools and libraries;
- How to ensure the program advances student learning while protecting students’ online safety;
- Whether E-rate funds are being spent appropriately and efficiently;
- Whether the Children’s Internet Protection Act sufficiently protects students from inappropriate and harmful online content; and
- What other policies should be considered for assessing students’ screen time.
Education organizations, however, are concerned about the future of the E-rate program.
The proposed rulemaking “could result in the end of the E-rate program,” said Joey Wender, the executive director of the Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition, a nonprofit advocating affordable, high-speed broadband. “That is an existential threat to schools and libraries around the country.”
Asking schools and libraries to go without broadband is like asking them to go without essential utilities like water or electricity, Wender said.
The E-rate program has been the “sole source of internet support from the federal level,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, the chief advocacy and governance officer for AASA, The School Superintendents Association. Without it, a majority of school districts don’t have the flexibility in their budgets to cover the shortfall, she said.
A review of the E-rate program also shouldn’t be “conflated with the conversation around screen time,” Ellerson Ng said. “Screen time, at its core, is a curriculum decision. E-rate is a connectivity program. The FCC is not the agency tasked with answering questions about education, education pedagogy, and curriculum.”
It’s important to have a conversation around screen time, she said, but it should be led by education-focused agencies and people with professional experience in the area.
The FCC should be asking questions about the E-rate, but it should be focused on connectivity and access issues, Ellerson Ng added.
“Decisions about device rules, screen-time expectations, and instructional technology are best made locally, not through one-size-fits-all mandates that could harm students, especially those in rural or low-income communities, and create unnecessary administrative burdens for schools,” according to a statement from the Consortium for School Networking, which represents school district technology leaders.
“CoSN encourages policymakers to carefully distinguish between E-rate’s support for essential educational connectivity and broader concerns about the unstructured use of technology outside of school for entertainment and other non-educational purposes,” the organization said.
The proposed rulemaking, Carr said in a statement, is part of the chairman’s “top-to-bottom” evaluation of the E-rate program, established in 1996 to help schools and libraries across the country with internet connectivity needs.
During Carr’s leadership, the FCC voted to remove school bus Wi-Fi and internet hotspots from the program’s eligible services list, both of which were added under former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Rosenworcel argued the expansion would help close the “homework gap” for students, while Carr called the expansion unlawful.
AASA, CoSN, the schools and libraries coalition, and other education organizations are working to raise awareness in Congress about the importance of the E-rate program.
“We want this commission to continue to move forward,” Ellerson Ng said. “They’ve been a great manager of this program in tandem with the Universal Service Administration Company (which oversees actual implementation). We don’t want to see this proposal undermine that.”
