Sens Tester, Daines and FCC Chairman push for more broadband

With laptops and tablets for all elementary students and the support of local Internet providers, the students at Fairfield Elementary School are faring pretty well when it comes to Internet accessibility. But as Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, Montana's senators, school officials and providers discussed, only 49 percent of Montana's public schools have access to high-speed Internet.

"Fairfield was a school that was an early adopter (of technology) and worked diligently," said Kirk Miller, executive director of School Administrators of Montana. "That isn't the case with much of the rest of Montana." According to a report given to the Montana Legislature's interim economic affairs committee in August, only 13 percent of Montanans have access to Internet with speeds of 25 megabits per second, compared with 83 percent of the U.S. population, according to a 2014 report from the FCC.