FCC may kill $2B program that connects schools and libraries to Internet - Ars Technica

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The Federal Communications Commission was roundly criticized today for proposing to scale back or eliminate E-Rate, a $2 billion-a-year Universal Service program that provides discounts for telecom services and equipment in schools and libraries.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said E-Rate should be changed because students are getting too much screen time. He led a 2-1 vote to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that proposes changes and asks the public to comment on them.

“Over the last decade, school districts across the country experimented with a massive increase in screen time for students,” Carr said at today’s meeting.

Carr blamed schools for replacing books and pencils with digital tools and said data shows “that more than half of students now use a computer for up to four hours a day, and a quarter of them spend more than four hours on screens.” He said that E-Rate began in 1997 “with a clear focus—supporting basic Internet access to schools and libraries for educational purposes,” but has “expanded exponentially.”

“We seek comment on whether the program should be reoriented in light of all of the above developments, as well as the increase in connectivity to schools and libraries across the country since 1997,” Carr said.

FCC seeks comment on ending E-Rate

Despite Carr’s use of the word “reoriented,” the options on the table include shutting down E-Rate. This is made clear in a public draft of the NPRM, which asks for comment on whether E-Rate should be limited or sunset:

Should the E-Rate program be limited or sunset to reflect today’s extensive connectivity rates? At what point should policymakers conclude that the program’s core objective has been achieved? We seek comment on whether Congress intended E-Rate to operate indefinitely, regardless of the extent to which schools and libraries have achieved universal connectivity.

Commissioner Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democrat, asked Carr’s office to remove the language seeking comment on whether to sunset the E-Rate program. The chair’s office declined that request, a spokesperson for Gomez told Ars today.

Gomez said at today’s meeting that the NPRM “has been erroneously portrayed as an inquiry into screen time” in order to float “speculative and unwarranted proposals, including whether the Commission should terminate the E-Rate program or dramatically limit its scope to only rural areas or areas served by a single provider. These proposals reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the challenges schools and libraries face today and reveal a striking cognitive dissonance at the core of this item.”

Issuing an NPRM is the first major step toward changing or ending the program. The FCC could make a final decision in a few months, and opponents may challenge that decision in court. Legal challenges are likely to argue that the FCC exceeded the authority granted to the agency by Congress, particularly if Carr tries to end or dramatically reduce the program.

The FCC’s draft NPRM argues that although Congress created the program, the purpose for which it was created may no longer exist. Congress authorized E-Rate in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and the FCC implemented the program the next year. E-Rate provides discounts of 20 percent to 90 percent for eligible services and equipment.

“In establishing the program in 1996, Congress was addressing a specific problem: limited access to advanced telecommunications and Internet services in schools and libraries,” the FCC proposal said. “Given the substantial expansion of broadband access in schools and libraries over the last three decades, we seek comment on whether and to what extent the E-Rate program has fulfilled that mission and whether continued funding is consistent with Congress’s original objective.”

Gomez: FCC acting like “the nation’s parent”

Gomez said E-Rate helps ensure that children in low-income neighborhoods and rural communities get “the same shot at a digital education as anyone else.” She said concerns about screen time affecting children’s development and mental health are “real and worth taking seriously,” but that “those conversations belong in homes, classrooms, pediatricians’ offices, and with state, local, and federal legislators. Policing children’s behavior in schools goes far beyond our stated mandate. The FCC is not the nation’s parent. It is not the nation’s teacher. And it is not the nation’s school board.”

She added that...