The U.S. Senate voted to kill the decision of the FCC to use the Universal Service Fund to fund WiFi hotspots for students and libraries. The House is supposed to take up the issue soon. The FCC approved this funding in 2024 under FCC Chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel. The plan was to use the E-Rate funding aimed at schools and libraries to provide hotspots that can bring temporary broadband to homes with no broadband connection.

The FCC created this program in response to requests from schools and libraries that were already lending hotspots. The idea of using hotspots leaped onto the scene during the pandemic when schools were looking for ways to keep students connected to schoolwork. Many school districts have kept the program running at a reduced level since the pandemic and asked the FCC if it would be possible to fund an expansion of the effort.

In the 2024 vote on the issue, then-FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington voted against the plan and argued that the E-Rate statute limits funding to only support classrooms and library buildings. You might ask why the Senate is voting on this instead of the FCC. The program is supposed to kick into gear soon, and until a fifth FCC Commissioner is seated, it’s likely that a vote at the FCC to end the program would end in a deadlocked tie.

It’s easy to understand why school systems wanted this program to help students do homework. Numerous studies have shown the benefits of good broadband on the effectiveness of education. One of the key studies that quantified this was released in March 2020 by the Quello Center, part of the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. The study was unique in that it was able to isolate the impact of having home broadband from other factors such as sex, race, and family income. The study involved 3,258 students in Michigan in grades 8 – 11 from schools described as rural.

The study showed significant performance differences for students with and without home broadband. Students with no Internet access at home tested lower on a range of metrics, including digital skills, homework completion, and grade point average. Some of the specific findings included:

• Students with home Internet access had an overall grade point average of 3.18, while students with no Internet access at home had a GPA of 2.81.
• During the study, 64% of students with no home Internet access sometimes left homework undone, compared to only 17% of students with a high-speed connection at home.
• Students without home Internet access spend an average of 30 minutes longer doing homework each evening.
• The study showed lower expectations for students without broadband at home. For example, 65% of students with fast home broadband have plans to pursue post-secondary education, while only 47% of students with no Internet access have such plans.
• Perhaps the most important finding was that there is a huge gap in digital skills for students without home broadband. To quote the study, “The gap in digital skills between students with no home access or cell phone only and those with fast or slow home Internet access is equivalent to the gap in digital skills between 8th and 11th grade students.” It was a devastating finding that students without home broadband fall three grades behind other students in terms of developing digital skills.

It’s clear from a purely educational perspective that students benefit tremendously from having a source of broadband for schoolwork in the home. The stated reason for undoing the hotspot plan is that it violates the intentions of the E-Rate program, but the reversal also seems to be aimed at undoing something approved by the previous administration. The press is now covering the Senate action as a major reversal of policy, but I recall that when this was originally approved, it barely made a ripple in the news.