Over the last year or so the government has talked a lot about a new ConnectED (pdf) initiative that would aim to improve school broadband services, with a goal of bringing 100 Mbps broadband to 99% of schools in the next four years. The government has talked a lot about this initiative in general terms, but hasn't much talked about how they'd pay for this or how specifically they'd build it.
Between the release of an
FCC staff report (pdf), and a
new fact sheet for the press (pdf), the agency has made it clear they intend to raise the current e-rate tax on traditional phone lines -- currently around a dollar a month -- by around 17 cents a month.
That two dollars per year tax will boost FCC annual spending on bringing broadband service to schools and libraries from $1.5 billion to $3.9 billion. The plan, which the FCC will vote on in December, comes on the heels of a bipartisan agreement to use $2 billion of the fund to deliver Wi-Fi into classrooms. These changes are part of a top down overhaul the FCC insists will modernize the sometimes controversial fund.
The E-Rate program has doled out nearly $30 billion since its inception in 1998. While much of that money went to quality work connecting the nation's schools and libraries, much of it was lost in a wormhole of loose government oversight and fraud, resulting in many libraries lacking the bandwidth to serve visitors despite the billions spent in endless, often-untracked subsidies to telecom companies.
"Basic connectivity is now inadequate connectivity," FCC boss Tom Wheeler stated today regarding what he's calling a "reboot" of the E-Rate system. "The failure to do so will mean children in some communities will continue to be bypassed by opportunities in the 21st century," added the FCC boss.