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esides the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, which were made available in federal stimulus packages, a dedicat- ed $7.17 billion was announced for schools and
libraries to apply for broadband access. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Emergency Con- nectivity Fund (ECF) supported the purchase of school bus Wi-Fi hotspots. A week before this month’s magazine went to print, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced a proposal to allow E-Rate funding for school bus Wi-Fi alongside internet connectivity for schools, libaries and bookmobiles. During a meeting of the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training last month, Rosenworcel discussed how school bus Wi-Fi helps close the homework gap. “For more than two decades, E-Rate has provided vital
support to help connect schools and libraries to high- speed, modern communications all across the country,” she said, adding that E-Rate has been a success as more than 95 percent of classrooms are now connected to the internet. However, after visiting schools across the country to learn more, she said she realized that even though stu- dents are connected in classrooms, when they go home at night not all of them have reliable internet access. “I took my on-the-road learnings back to the office and I combed through all the data I could find,” she said. “I found that seven in 10 teachers were assigning homework that required internet access. But FCC data consistently demonstrated that one in three households do not have broadband at home.” She explanined that during the pandemic and result-
ing forced virtual learning, the homework gap became a full-fledged education gap, and the ECF program was created to help bridge it. Rosenworcel provided exam- ples of where ECF has helped districts, such as in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The district used ECF support to provide 1,200 Chromebooks, 900 laptops, and 1,500 broadband hotspots to their students. “I think that what’s worked for the Emergency Con-
nectivity Fund could work for E-Rate,” she said. “I think now is the right time to do this, as the ECF effort is drawing down. … This is not a far leap to make. It’s both consistent with the law and the history of the program. After all, for many years E-Rate supported the use of
communications for school buses, like wireless phones used by drivers, when shepherding students to and from school.” Student transporters would be sure to rush toward
additional funding for Wi-Fi, right? Maybe not. Despite more than 90 percent of transportation
directors and supervisors stating in a recent School Transportation News magazine survey that they view the school bus as an extension of the classroom, 72 percent said they didn’t even apply for the ECF program. Six- teen percent of that same group said the reason for not applying was because they already had the technology installed. As for the others, transportation directors cited con- cerns about future funding and lack of cellular coverage as the two top reasons for not applying. Then there were those who expressed no interest in the technology. The ECF covers the price of the installation, equipment
and data plan for the first year of the Wi-Fi connectivity. However, districts are responsible for paying ongoing per-bus cellular costs in the following years. That was one of the reasons why James Nestico, the transporta- tion supervisor for Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda UFSD in New York, didn’t apply for the funds. Before the pandemic in 2019, he explained, he met
with all the district’s school principals regarding school bus Wi-Fi. He noted that because his routes are fairly short at less than a half hour each, district administration didn’t see Wi-Fi equipped school buses as a necessity. He added that athletic trips were considered as a use case, but ultimately it was decided that because most students already have their own devices that run on data, district officials didn’t believe that students would pull out their laptops and start doing homework on board. “I’d rather them talk to their friends as opposed to be
on their devices,” Nestico commented. Even though there is funding right now to install the equipment free of charge, he said a deterrant is the ongoing cellular costs for years to come. Instead, the district prioritized becoming a one-to-one district, where every student receives a Chromebook. Addressing concerns about the availability of future funding, Lea Bogle, the president and CEO of Premier Wireless, responded that everyone thought the world was flat until somebody trusted that it was round. “I don’t believe we will go back to a flat world,” she ex-
How long are your route times on average?
44% .......................................................46 min to an hour 40% ..................................................Longer than an hour 39% ......................................................................21 – 45 min
7% ........................................................................ 11 – 20 min 0% ..........................................................................5 – 10 min
(Out of 70 responses to a recent STN magazine survey. Total does not equal 100. Multiple answers allowed.)
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