Leo Doran

Possibly billions of dollars’ worth of a public educational telecommunications resource has languished unused and unlicensed within the federal government for decades, some estimates show. If it were managed more effectively, experts say, the resource could be used to essentially eliminate the "homework gap," the divide that exists between students who have access to high-quality learning technologies in school and at home and those who don't.

Eleven education groups—including the National Association of State Boards of Education, the National Education Association, the Consortium for School Networking, and the International Society for Technology in Education—jointly filed documents eight years ago petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to give educators access to the unlicensed remnants of the Educational Broadband Service, or EBS. Although the FCC has been formally deliberating over what to do with the unlicensed spectrum since at least 2008, the agency has yet to issue a ruling, and the proceeding remains open—indefinitely.