Education policy analysts, administrators and lawmakers gathered online on Thursday for The Hill’s Future of Education summit, a day-long exploration of what education will look like in the wake of COVID-19.
Experts spoke about the racial and socioeconomic inequities spotlighted by the pandemic, but also discussed new opportunities to bridge them and potential policy solutions.
The event, moderated by The Hill’s Editor-at-Large Steve Clemons, focused heavily on the digital divide or the “homework gap” faced by students without reliable Internet access at home.
“I think we need a national policy of 100% of our households online,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. “Because no individual, no household, no community is going to have a fair shot at success in the twenty-first century without it. In the near term, that starts with students, just because so many are sitting at home right now being asked to go to a remote classroom and they don’t have the Internet access to get there.”
For her, fixing the gap means extending the federal E-Rate program, which offers schools and libraries discounted Internet access. She wants to see the program “meet this moment” by serving students learning at home, as well.
She thinks this is a problem that affects students in every state. Rural students often lack access to broadband, while students from low-income families sometimes simply can’t afford it, Rosenworcel said. While she’s heartened by local initiatives to address the issue, “we shouldn’t be doing this town by town, city by city.”
She described a “lack of ambition” on the part of the Trump administration to come up with national solutions but praised bills like the Heroes bill in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Emergency Educational Connections Act in the U.S. Senate, which would compel the Federal Communications Commission to take advantage of the E-Rate program.
