IT Infrastructure & Management

School Districts Seek Billions in New Federal Money for Connectivity, FCC Announces

By Alyson Klein — August 25, 2021 2 min read
Image shows two children ages 5 to 7 years old and a teacher, an African-American woman, holding a digital tablet up, showing it to the girl sitting next to her. They are all wearing masks, back to school during the COVID-19 pandemic, trying to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Earlier this year, Congress approved more than $7 billion to help schools close the so-called homework gap. And it turns out that school districts in every state want a piece of that funding.

The Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday that it received $5.1 billion in requests for the aid in the first round of applications, which were due Aug. 13. The money—known as the Emergency Connectivity Fund—was approved in March as part of the broader American Rescue Plan, which was aimed at helping the country recover from the economic impact of the pandemic.

The funding can be used for laptops and tablets, Wi-Fi hotspots, modems, routers, and broadband connections for students and school staff to use off-campus. It is also available to support learning outside of the school building, including homework, even if students have returned to full time in-person instruction.

“The Emergency Connectivity Fund is the single largest effort to bring connectivity and devices to students who lack them—and this robust response from applicants shows the tremendous need in our communities,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, the acting chairwoman of the FCC in a statement.

If all $5 billion in projects is approved, the fund will still have about $2 billion left for other projects. The FCC announced Wednesday that it is opening a second application window, which will run from Sept. 28 to Oct. 13, to support connectivity at schools and libraries during the 2021-22 academic year.

When the pandemic hit in March of 2020, as many as 15 million of the country’s 50.7 million public school students lacked adequate connectivity to learn online at home, a Common Sense Media survey found. What’s more, 10 percent of public-school teachers nationwide also did not have sufficient internet capacity for online learning, the survey found.

Education advocacy organizations have argued the funding should be a regular part of the federal budget, not just a one-time thing.

“School districts and state departments of education are working hard now to persuade Congress to make the emergency connectivity fund permanent,” said Reg Leichty, a founder and partner at Foresight Law + Policy, who advocates on behalf of the Consortium for School Networking. “Making the fund permanent is absolutely essential to how we deliver education 2021 and beyond.”

In fact, following the announcement, a coalition of groups representing schools and libraries, including AASA, the School Superintendents Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the International Society for Technology in Education, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association put forth a statement urging Congress to pass legislation that would provide $8 billion a year to continue the fund, for five years.

Separately, the U.S. Senate approved bipartisan legislation earlier this month that includes $65 billion for broadband infrastructure. While none of the funding is specifically directed at schools and libraries, if approved, it’s bound to help students and teachers get connected so they can complete work at home, Leichty explained. That’s partly because the bill targets those parts of the country that lack the structure to make things like hotspots work, he said.

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
(Re)Focus on Dyslexia: Moving Beyond Diagnosis & Toward Transformation
Move beyond dyslexia diagnoses & focus on effective literacy instruction for ALL students. Join us to learn research-based strategies that benefit learners in PreK-8.
Content provided by EPS Learning
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Teaching Webinar
Cohesive Instruction, Connected Schools: Scale Excellence District-Wide with the Right Technology
Ensure all students receive high-quality instruction with a cohesive educational framework. Learn how to empower teachers and leverage technology.
Content provided by Instructure
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
How to Use Data to Combat Bullying and Enhance School Safety
Join our webinar to learn how data can help identify bullying, implement effective interventions, & foster student well-being.
Content provided by Panorama Education

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

IT Infrastructure & Management Sizing Up the Risks of Schools' Reliance on the 'Internet of Things'
Technology is now critical to both the learning and business operations of schools.
1 min read
Vector image of an open laptop with octopus tentacles reaching out of the monitor around a triangle icon with an exclamation point in the middle of it.
DigitalVision Vectors
IT Infrastructure & Management How Schools Can Survive a Global Tech Meltdown
The CrowdStrike incident this summer is a cautionary tale for schools.
8 min read
Image of students taking a test.
smolaw11/iStock/Getty
IT Infrastructure & Management What Districts Can Do With All Those Old Chromebooks
The Chromebooks and tablets districts bought en masse early in the pandemic are approaching the end of their useful lives.
3 min read
Art and technology teacher Jenny O'Sullivan, right, shows students a video they made, April 15, 2024, at A.D. Henderson School in Boca Raton, Fla. While many teachers nationally complain their districts dictate textbooks and course work, the South Florida school's administrators allow their staff high levels of classroom creativity...and it works.
Art and technology teacher Jenny O'Sullivan, right, shows students a video they made on April 15, 2024, at A.D. Henderson School in Boca Raton, Fla. After districts equipped every student with a device early in the pandemic, they now face the challenge of recycling or disposing of the technology responsibly.
Wilfredo Lee/AP
IT Infrastructure & Management Los Angeles Unified's AI Meltdown: 5 Ways Districts Can Avoid the Same Mistakes
The district didn't clearly define the problem it was trying to fix with AI, experts say. Instead, it bought into the hype.
10 min read
Image of the complexities of Artificial Intelligence.
Kotryna Zukauskaite for Education Week