It will soon be easier for schools to cover the cost of installing Wi-Fi on school buses, allowing students, especially those in rural areas with long commutes, to use that time to study and do homework.
Starting next year, schools will be able to use federal E-rate funds to pay for Wi-Fi on school buses under changes approved by the Federal Communications Commission on Oct. 19.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (D) supported the bill along with two other Democrats on the five-person committee. Both Republicans on the committee voted against it.
The debate over the change reminded Rosenworcel of a rural community in Vermont he recently visited. Some students commute to school there for an hour each way. The district has equipped buses with Wi-Fi so students can spend more time studying.
“They decided to turn ride time into connection time for homework. Call it Wi-Fi on wheels,” Rosenworcel said.
Before the district connected buses, librarians said, students who didn’t have internet at home would rush to the library right before school ended to print out assignments, research web pages, and anything they needed for homework. told Worsel.
The student “didn’t have broadband at home, so he was printing reams of paper day in and day out,” Rosenworcel said. “Let’s face it, this is a kid with an extraordinary amount of guts. But it shouldn’t be this hard.”
But Republicans on the committee argued that the change was unnecessary and contrary to the intent of Congress, which created the E-Rate program expressly to connect classrooms rather than other types of learning spaces.
Additionally, one Republican, Nathan Symington, said he believes the changes are “wasteful and unlikely to benefit students or teachers.”
“Anyone who has ridden a school bus knows that the reality is that most kids sit quietly on the bus instead of interacting with their friends or browsing social media on their phones. “There should be a healthy skepticism that people will do their homework on their laptops,” he said. He said.
Education organizations such as the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) supported the move.
“We think this is a good step forward,” said CoSN Executive Director Keith Krueger. “It makes sense to expand the learning space, just like we do in schools. Students can do their homework not only in the classroom, but also in the cafeteria and study hall.”
Additionally, he said studies have shown that implementing Wi-Fi in vehicles improves student behavior on buses.
Currently, the E-Rate program has a spending cap of $4.4 billion, but the allocated funds are far less than that. Last year, the program gave away about $2.5 billion, and the year before that he gave just under $2.1 billion. The decrease in funding requirements is partially due to changes made to the program in 2014. The same goes for lower data costs.
Expanding E-Rate to provide Wi-Fi on buses is part of Rosenworcel’s broader push to provide technology services schools think they need.
She also proposed a pilot program Competitive grants of up to $200 million over three years to protect schools and libraries from cyber threats that have become more frequent and sophisticated in recent years. The proposal would also need approval from the full committee.
