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In July, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the use of E-rate funds to loan Wi-Fi hotspots that support students, school staff, and library patrons without internet access. For an update on the 2025 E-rate, register for an eSchool News webinar featuring expert insight. It is 2024 in the United States.
The 14th annual E-rate Trends Report reveals the current successes and challenges of the E-rate program and evaluates how the program can most effectively support schools and libraries. “The E-rate program is crucial for modern education. “The E-rate program is crucial for modern education.
Benjamin Herold of Education Week has put together a real cracker of a series on the challenges of ensuring school broadband access in rural communities – and how E-rate (pre- and post-modernization) is helping to address the situation.
CoSN 2018: How Your District Can Prepare for an E-Rate Audit. If you’re using E-rate funds , prepare to be reviewed or audited. That was the message from Funds for Learning ’s President Cathy Cruzan Wednesday during the third day of CoSN’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. E-rate Audits Come in Many Forms.
Teachers and students are well on their way to fulfilling the mission of seeing 99 percent of all schools connected to next-generation broadband, according to the “2018 State of States Report” from EducationSuperHighway. million students and 1,356 schools lack basic infrastructure needed for digital learning, according to the report. .
School Districts Take Advantage of E-Rate’s Category One Funding. Once its existing WAN provider wanted to charge significantly more for the same bandwidth speed, Midlothian Independent School District administrators began shopping for a faster, more affordable network — and they got one this summer with the help of E-rate fund s.
After an extended period in limbo, there is more clarity about the federal E-Rate program and what K–12 districts need to know when submitting forms for the next application period and planning future networking needs. The FCC approved the last five-year E-Rate budget in 2014, which was also the first year of the program modernization.
After an extended period in limbo, there is more clarity about the federal E-Rate program and what K–12 districts need to know when submitting forms for the next application period and planning future networking needs. The FCC approved the last five-year E-Rate budget in 2014, which was also the first year of the program modernization.
After an extended period in limbo, there is more clarity about the federal E-Rate program and what K–12 districts need to know when submitting forms for the next application period and planning future networking needs. The FCC approved the last five-year E-Rate budget in 2014, which was also the first year of the program modernization.
After an extended period in limbo, there is more clarity about the federal E-Rate program and what K–12 districts need to know when submitting forms for the next application period and planning future networking needs. The FCC approved the last five-year E-Rate budget in 2014, which was also the first year of the program modernization.
While E-rate remains a crucial program for schools and libraries to ensure connectivity, the COVID-19 pandemic brought attention to the need for increased flexibility and funds for off-campus learning. Related content: How school librarians are getting creative in a pandemic. ” Key 2020 report findings include: 1.
The broadband gap isn’t only a problem for remote learning. That Broadband Gap Bar? schools had high-speed broadband connections. A different nonprofit, Connected Nation, has picked up EducationSuperHighway’s broadband baton. households that have no internet connection or lack a decent device for remote learning.
No longer just a haven for dusty books and stern shushes, the library is now a place for digital resources and makerspaces and flexible learning. As such, modern libraries should be outfitted with robust broadband and plenty of places for students and educators to charge equipment. Today’s school libraries are being reinvented.
Kajeet ’s ConnectEdNow campaign , announced in June, aims to make broadband access more affordable by providing students with portable Wi-Fi hotspot devices, a $200 mobile device subsidy and discounted data plans from Verizon , T-Mobile and other LTE providers. Broadband access still is limited in some rural areas. by Erin Brereton.
Key points: Schools still rely on E-rate funds to upgrade and protect their technology infrastructures Will cybersecurity receive E-rate funding? Since then, the program has transformed to help schools and libraries connect to high-speed broadband.
One of those programs is the Universal Service Program for Schools and Libraries, better known as E-rate. E-rate helps schools and libraries get affordable Internet access by discounting the cost of service based on the school’s location – urban or rural – and the percentage of low-income students served.
Reliable high-speed internet access isn’t a “nice to have” – it’s absolutely essential for teaching and learning. Without reliable connectivity, students and teachers lose access to the digital tools and resources that make learning engaging and relevant.
But the tea leaves for E-Rate are pretty positive actually. Rather, it's centered in the popular E-Rate program, which has provided billions of dollars in broadband discounts and infrastructure upgrades to schools and libraries. But the tea leaves for E-Rate are pretty positive actually.”
The federal E-rate program remains a vital and trusted funding source to bring “mission-critical” internet access to schools and libraries, according to an annual report tracking trends and developments related to the federal funding stream. E-rate remains a vital program for schools and libraries to achieve connectivity.
Every year, schools and libraries have access to billions of dollars of funding through the FCC’s E-rate program. In this post I’ll break down the importance of E-rate, how it works, and the types of technologies it makes available that are crucial to education. The importance of E-rate.
When the coronavirus pandemic forced students into remote learning this past spring, many telecommunications companies stepped up to offer free or deeply discounted home broadband access to families who couldn’t afford it. Related content: What the pandemic has revealed about digital equity.
For more than 20 years, the Federal Communications Commission has directed the multi-billion dollar E-rate program, which provides taxpayer-supported construction and service discounts that districts and libraries can use toward internet costs. A quarter of respondents rated the system neither easy nor difficult in the 2017 survey.
Despite the challenges ahead, we are here to provide connectivity and E-rate support during COVID-19. Here are a few ways the E-rate and broadband community is working to help connect your students during the crisis. State E-rate Coordinators Alliance (SECA). Funds For Learning. Learn more.
A large majority of E-rate applicants (87 percent) said the federally funded program is vital to their internet connectivity goals, according to an annual survey that tracks program applicants’ perspectives on the program. Next page: How one school is putting E-rate funding to work).
But what was once the gold standard for high speed is now barely enough to keep pace with modern learning environments, according to Evan Marwell, CEO of the nonprofit EducationSuperHighway , which released its annual State of the States report Tuesday. At that speed, Marwell said, “digital learning” takes on a whole new meaning.
In 2014, the Federal Communications Commission modernized the E-rate program with the objective of closing the K-12 digital divide within five years. This catalyzed a sea change in the broadband available in America’s schools. Why has E-rate modernization worked so well? Setting clear connectivity goals.
Even after service providers launched discounts for broadband services during the pandemic — often targeting online learning — Black Americans across the South saw little change in their access to broadband services. But nowhere is the digital divide larger than in the Black rural South. Add the bill’s $14.25 Add the bill’s $14.25
Education leaders expect school internet needs to increase over the next several years, highlighting the need for increased bandwidth and resources to support growing digital learning demands on school networks. Related content: 5 school and library applicants weigh in on E-rate.
Sadly, though, the reality is that millions of Americans — in rural and urban areas alike, and including many underrepresented minorities — lack the reliable broadband connections needed to access postsecondary and K-12 education in a nation that remains in partial lockdown. Related: A school district is building a DIY broadband network.
Organized by AMERIND Critical Infrastructure Manager Kimball Sekaquaptewa, this fiber build project will ultimately help Native American students in these Pueblos access high-speed broadband and gain essential skills through the power of technology. The Vision: A high-speed broadband network for pueblo schools and libraries.
SAN FRANCISCO — December 11, 2014 — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted today to approve Chairman Wheeler’s latest proposal to complete modernization of the 18-year-old federal E-rate program. billion per year to account for growing bandwidth demand. billion per year to account for growing bandwidth demand.
federal government’s E-Rate program, which provides “universal service” funding to schools and libraries for telecommunications and internet, also said it wouldn’t pay for another project. Broadband — high-speed internet — is critical for learning. So she wasn’t used to working on broadband, she says.
She is the current Digital Access Coordinator for the Learning Technology Center of Illinois (LTC) and an Illinois State E-rate Coordinator. Moreover, Mindy serves on several state and national associations such as the State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and State E-rate Coordinator Alliance (SECA).
Increasingly, users of digital platforms, tools, and networks around the world are learning how important it is that their data is collected and used transparently and ethically. These are critical questions, and we are committed to ensuring that when it comes to our work, the answers around our use of broadband data are clear.
Funds For Learning announces that the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) opened the E-rate filing window on January 15, 2021, and will accept applications until March 25, 2021. The 24th year of the E-rate program enters a new phase of regulations intended to increase equity and streamline the application process.
In our work with state and school district leaders, one of the questions that comes up most frequently is whether we are E-rate consultants. Since E-rate is the primary funding source for broadband Internet for schools nationwide, our mission to connect all of America’s classrooms is intertwined with the program in many ways.
. — The floor-to-ceiling glass wall between the high-tech fabrication lab and the hallway at Monticello High School in Albemarle County, Virginia, is meant to showcase the hands-on, self-directed learning done there. “I They’re building their own countywide broadband network. This is an equity issue,” said Bredder. “If
That’s according to the sixth annual broadband and infrastructure report released by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a nonprofit made up of K-12 school technology leaders. In the survey, school district representatives also answered questions about E-rate, broadband connectivity, cloud computing and data interoperability.
As such, states can expect to support a great variety of approaches to educational technology in their districts under the program, from those that spend some smaller portion of funds on activities to fill in the gaps in local efforts to those that devote the maximum allowable funds to ambitious personalized learning implementations.
School wi-fi and broadband connectivity are showing improvement, due largely to an increased investment from the federal E-rate program’s modernization, according to a new report from CoSN. One trend is clear: Learning is going digital.
It’s that time of year again–the federal E-rate program is getting underway, and with program updates and refreshes in recent years, you might need a primer on this year’s program. At the end of 2014, the Federal Communications Commission voted to increase funding to the federal E-rate program by $1.5
A free tool from nonprofit EducationSuperHighway is intended to help district technology leaders compare broadband and connectivity information with other districts nearby and across the nation. Next page: District success stories and highlights of the new tool).
This is one of the first documents that really gives schools a roadmap for looking at their technology systems as a whole, says Lindsay Jones, the chief executive officer of CAST, a nonprofit that advocates for equitable learning conditions. There are some attempts to plug the cavernous hole that would leave in funding broadband advances.
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