The Federal Communications Commission came under fire today for proposing to reduce or eliminate E-Rate, a $2 billion-a-year Universal Service program that offers discounts for telecommunications services and equipment at schools and libraries.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said E-Rate should be changed because students spend too much time in front of screens. He led a 2-1 vote issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that proposes changes and asks the public to comment on them.
“Over the last decade, school districts across the country have experienced a massive increase in student screen time,” Carr said at today’s meeting.
Carr blamed schools for replacing books and pencils with digital tools, saying data shows “that more than half of students now use a computer for up to four hours a day, and a quarter of them spend more than four hours in front of screens.” He said E-Rate began in 1997 “with a clear focus: supporting basic Internet access in schools and libraries for educational purposes,” but has “expanded exponentially.”
“We are seeking comment on whether the program should be refocused in light of all of the developments mentioned above, as well as the increase in connectivity to schools and libraries across the country since 1997,” Carr said.
FCC Seeks Comments on End of E-Rate
Despite Carr’s use of the word “refocused,” options on the table include shutting down E-Rate. This is clear in a public draft from the NPRM, which requests comments on whether E-Rate should be limited or gone:
Should the E-Rate program be limited or eliminated to reflect today’s broad connectivity rates? At what point should policymakers conclude that the central objective of the program has been achieved? We sought comment on whether Congress intended for E-Rate to operate indefinitely, regardless of the extent to which schools and libraries have achieved universal connectivity.
Commissioner Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democrat, asked Carr’s office to remove the language seeking comment on whether to suspend the E-Rate program. The president’s office rejected that request, a spokesperson for Gómez told Ars today.
