Washington Abandons Unconnected Students
By Jon Bernstein, President, Bernstein Strategy Group
My daughter’s Internet connection failed the other day. Normally, this would have been a mild inconvenience. However, with all of her classes, school meetings and physical education now online, even this brief broadband brown-out caused significant disruption and emotional strain. Fortunately, for her and all of us, this problem resolved quickly and she was back online and in class within minutes.
Not everyone is so lucky. A pair of studies out this summer — from Common Sense Media and the Alliance for Excellent Education — found that between 15 and 16.9 million K-12 students lacked high speed access at home, a computing device suitable for schoolwork or both. Thus, when nearly every school building shut down in March because of COVID-19, this lack of home access, termed the “homework gap”, became an education gap for millions of students.
One thing that these studies laid bare: the homework gap does not respect America’s red-blue divide. According to the Common Sense study: 37% of K-12 students in traditionally red rural America lacked adequate connectivity at home; and the five states with the highest percentages of unconnected students — Mississippi (50%), Arkansas (46%), Alabama (41%), Oklahoma (41%) and Louisiana (40%) — are reliably red. Blue states also share this problem: more than 1.5 million California students and 726,000 New York students have no home Internet connection. Moreover, 30% of Black and 26% of Hispanic K-12 students lack adequate home connectivity.
With such an obvious problem afflicting so many K-12 students, everyone expected that the federal government would leap into the fray with money and policy solutions. But that didn’t happen. And now, with negotiations on COVID relief legislation at a standstill and Congress largely gone from Washington until after the election, federal funding to bridge this homework gap appears unlikely before 2021. Let’s talk about what has happened and potential solutions.
How we got here.
Last spring, Congress attempted to address the homework gap crisis by moving legislation that would directly appropriate funding to connect students at home that would be disbursed through the existing E-Rate program. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) was the first out of the box with the Emergency Educational Connections Act, a bill that would provide $2 billion for public and private schools to purchase Internet service, hotspots and computing devices for students who lacked home Internet access. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) led the way in the Senate, attracting 46 Democratic Senators to his version of the Meng bill, which would increase funding levels to $4 billion. A little more than a week ago, the House passed a second version of its HEROES Act, which included the Meng/Markey language and a whopping $12 billion to cover homework gap costs for the next 12 months. This was a big upgrade and would have been a huge financial help.
But direct COVID relief funding for the homework gap has still not arrived. The Senate has refused to take up the HEROES Act, with Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) pushing a “skinny” substitute that contained no homework gap money. And, just a few days ago, President Trump declared an end to what appeared to be fruitful negotiations between his Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, and Speaker Pelosi on a final COVID relief bill. Given the current unstable political situation and the stalemate on another COVID relief package, it could be months before there is even a possibility for homework gap funding.
So, what now?
In the short term, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could allow $1.6 billion in unspent current year E-Rate dollars right now to provide hotspots, computing devices and Internet access to students who lack home connectivity. While this amount will not reach all unconnected students, it would certainly help. Unfortunately, FCC Chairman Pai opposes this move on the grounds that he lacks the statutory authority to provide E-Rate dollars anywhere but school classrooms even though most student homes now serve as classrooms. It may not be possible to change this Chairman’s mind, but, should there be a new Administration next year, a new FCC Chair could move fast to make this happen.
In the medium term, whatever the results of the election, one of the new Congress’s first bills is likely to be a COVID relief or recovery package that hopefully contains significant funding for the homework gap.
In the long term, the homework gap requires a more permanent solution than hotspots and temporary defrayment of Internet access costs for unconnected student homes. To solve this problem fully will require a bigger federal effort, backed by a lot more money, to ensure that all homes with school age students have broadband connections, a computing device appropriate for school and monthly Internet access service (subsidized as necessary).
My daughter is fortunate to have the technology and Internet access she needs to attend school from home. The federal government must make sure that luck is not the plan for unconnected students. Instead, it should make it a priority to ensure that all kids can participate equitably in their education if school shutdowns persist or recur.
The president and founder of Bernstein Strategy Group, Jon Bernstein has been working on education, education technology and telecommunications issues since 1995. Currently, he serves as the Co-chair of the Education & Libraries Networks Coalition (EdLiNC), Co-chair of the Homework Gap Big Tent Coalition, and Executive Director of the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET). Prior to launching the Bernstein Strategy Group in 2005, Jon was a Vice President at Leslie Harris & Associates, an Attorney Advisor with the Federal Communications Commission and a Lobbyist and Interim Manager of the Federal Relations Division of the National Education Association. He also worked for The Lightspan Partnership and as a Legislative Fellow for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. Jon received his B.A. from Colgate University and his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.
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