The FCC voted 2-1 to begin reconsidering E-Rate, a $2 billion annual program that provides discounts on telecom services and equipment for schools and libraries across the country.
Chairman Brendan Carr says it’s about screen time. “Over the last decade, school districts across the country experimented with a massive increase in screen time for students,” he said at the meeting. The NPRM asks for comment on whether E-Rate should be “reoriented” — or shut down entirely.
A draft of the proposal includes the option to sunset the program. The FCC argues that since Congress created E-Rate in 1996, broadband access has expanded so much that “continued funding” might not align with the original intent.
Commissioner Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democrat, pushed back hard. She asked Carr’s office to remove language about ending the program. They refused.
“The FCC is not the nation’s parent. It is not the nation’s teacher. And it is not the nation’s school board,” Gomez said. She argued that E-Rate gives kids in low-income neighborhoods the same shot at digital education as anyone else.
Senator Ed Markey called the proposal “an attack on educational equality” and said it threatens three decades of settled law. Advocacy groups were similarly blunt: “Instead of asking whether E-Rate should be terminated, the FCC should be asking how to make it stronger,” said Joey Wender of the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition.
This isn’t the first E-Rate cut. The Carr FCC already killed funding for school hotspot lending and WiFi on school buses last year, with Senator Ted Cruz backing those changes.
The NPRM opens a public comment period. A final decision could come in a few months, and legal challenges are expected.
