SPECIAL REPORT
Jim Ellis of Henrico County Schools in Virginia talks to 2024 STN EXPO East attendees about plans to use E-Rate to fund school bus Wi-Fi. Seated to his left is Billy Huish of Farmington Municipal Public Schools in New Mexico.
Farmington covers 808 square miles and services 20
campuses. More than 6,500 of the district’s 11,000 stu- dents use school bus transportation every day. Some students face a 30- to 45-minute drive to and from their schools, while others live as far as two hours away. For af- ter-school sports, it sometimes takes three hours to get to games. Given all that time in transit, it makes good sense to provide online access to middle and high school stu- dents with MacBooks and elementary students with iPads. “We consider it critical to provide students wireless
internet access on school buses,” Huish said. “Our stu- dents are not getting out of school and just riding home. They’re getting on the bus and continuing to learn and get their work done.” At Henrico County Public Schools in the Richmond,
Virginia area, 50 of the district’s 606 buses are equipped to provide Wi-Fi. Director of Pupil Transportation Jim Ellis said that initially, obtaining the equipment was not a priority from his viewpoint, with the impetus coming from district IT staff, which wanted to take advantage of E-Rate funds. But Ellis has been pleased by the results. “It’s turned out better than I expected,” he said. “I’ve been surprised to see the number of logins.” Ellis added that when it comes to his fleet’s overall needs, an investment in Wi-Fi only makes sense for a limited number of buses. “We have it on our buses that are having the longest
runs,” Ellis noted. “That involves transporting kids to and from specialty centers, so they’re on the bus a little longer than everybody else.”
Complex Issue Although advocates of funding bus-based Wi-Fi may feel its value is a no-brainer, others have voiced serious
22 School Transportation News • MAY 2025
concerns. Rather than viewing online access for stu- dents through an educational lens, opponents, including prominent Republican politicians, see it as a threat. They argue not only that they believe this an unconstituta- tional use of federal funds, but access to online content raises red flags. Opponents claim that, at best, internet access will simply allow students to waste time rather than to complete school assignments. What’s even more problematic, they say, is the likelihood that children will gain access to all the unhealthy content the internet has to offer, from inappropriate web content to an avenue for bullying. To address such concerns, providers of broadband ser-
vice offer filters that limit access to restricted content in conjunction with the school district network. This solu- tion hasn’t gained acceptance with opponents, however, who believe children are adept at getting around such barriers. In addition to the battle in the courts, a separate
concern is that the FCC may remove school-bus-based Wi-Fi from the E-rate Eligible Services List. That’s a definite possibility given previous opposition voiced by new Republican FCC commissioners who now make up the board majority and could attempt to reverse the approval under the Learning WIthout Limits initiative. “We anticipate that as soon as the FCC has five com-
missioners, the chairman will move to eliminate this flexibility,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director, advocacy and governance for AASA, the School Superintendents Association. This doesn’t mean Wi-Fi would be prohibited on school buses, but an important funding stream could disappear. “If you pay for it, you’ll be able to have Wi-Fi,” Ellerson
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