For students without home internet during pandemic, could FCC's E-Rate help?

The Federal Communications Commission has promoted several emergency measures to boost broadband connectivity during the coronavirus pandemic, which has required millions of people to rely on inadequate at-home internet connections for work and school. But without an immediate expansion of the agency’s E-Rate program — a K-12 school-based broadband subsidy created in 1996 — students around the country will continually be locked out of their virtual classrooms, said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. She called for an immediate expansion and upgrade to the E-Rate program as one of the only national tools that the federal government has to quickly close the digital divide. “We should let our school libraries loan out wireless hot spots using the funding in the E-Rate program,” said Commissioner Rosenworcel. “That’s not a radical idea. We could do that with existing law today. And we can do it at national scale. Which means every mayor won’t have to figure it out on their own.”