EdTech and E-Rate

Since its inception, the E-Rate program has existed on the back-end of the school district experience. The program has funneled critical reimbursement dollars to schools, helping to offset the expense of building out high-speed networks to support student learning, and wiring buildings and classrooms.

However, with the Emergency Connectivity Fund set to launch in the next month, the E-Rate program will be the conduit for funds connecting on a closer level to the central beneficiaries of the program - students. It is for students that the program exists, and now with a one-time only program set to provide reimbursements for students in need to gain access to laptops and hotspots, the program will be significantly expanding its reach and effectiveness.

The success of the initial rollout of the ECF program should provide a great opportunity to assess the efficacy of using federal funds to more fully support remote learning in the future. Even though connected devices and cloud resources continue to drop in price, the ability of school districts to provide devices for student learning will continue to pose a challenge. While wealthier districts may be able to offset this cost by opening up their networks to a BYOD environment, in districts where a smaller percentage of students have existing devices at home, it will be up to the school to provide access.

Schools and lawmakers should be encouraged to think about the ways in which the ECF program supports students in the next school year, and should do so with an eye to the future. Just as the second modernization order of the E-Rate program shifted toward wireless connectivity, perhaps a third modernization could take a more expansive position, bringing items like chromebooks permanently under the banner of E-Rate funding.