The E-Rate got mentioned several times in a Senate hearing at which there seemed to be universal agreement that student screen time should be limited. That can't be good.
Not surprisingly, the first mention came from Sen. Cruz, chair of the subcommittee, who decried that "the Biden FCC sought to bankroll kids unsupervised internet access and undermine parental rights by expanding the E-Rate program to install Wi-Fi hotspots off-campus, including in school buses and students homes" and touted the legislation he created to revoke the eligibility of home hotspots. (20:08)
Senator Cantwell countered that "rather focusing on threatening E-Rate, connectivity for school, I think we should be passing meaningful protections for kids online privacy regardless of whether they're accessing the internet from home or school." (24:31)
Senator Luhan also came to the defense of the E-Rate, pointing out that Internet access facilitated by the E-Rate must be filtered under CIPA and cannot be unsupervised. He also asked a witness to discuss the harm if the E-Rate ended. (1:48:19)
Finally, Senator Markey talked up the E-Rate, repeating that CIPA rules prevented unsupervised access, and saying that, "The E-Rate hotspots program was a responsible, carefully crafted effort to ensure that low-income students had the same opportunities as their wealthier classmates." (1:57:18)
So not bad, one criticism and three senators in support. Typically, it fell along party lines.
Still, as I look on the horizon for threats to the E-Rate, this one looks like the most threatening currently (though it has a lot of growing to do before it's a realistic threat). In the '90s and '00s, the pendulum swung fully to the "technology good" end of the spectrum, and it's now swinging to "technology bad." Currently, the agreement is "social media bad," with a growing "cell phone bad" sentiment. So far no one's saying "E-Rate bad," but I'm afraid the E-Rate could be the baby thrown out with the social media bathwater. It's already happened to home hotspot and bus WiFi.
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