FCC considers cuts to funds for internet access at schools and libraries

Public schools and libraries across the United States could face steep increases in the prices they pay for internet service, following a review being launched by the Federal Communications Commission.More than 100,000 schools and 11,000 libraries rely on the program known as E-Rate, which has provided discounts of between 20% and 90% for three decades, thanks to a 1996 law passed by Congress that mandates telecom providers subsidize universal access.About 47 million students and library patrons depend on this access for connectivity, according to the Congressional Research Service. Why We Wrote This A program called E-Rate has helped expand public internet access for 30 years. As the Federal Communications Commission challenges whether the subsidies are still needed, schools and libraries say cuts could leave them with hard choices. But in a notice for public comment filed this week, the FCC cited increased concern about the impact excessive screen time is having on children and suggested that it might be time to end subsidies for school- and library-based broadband and Wi-Fi services.The commission also said the internet is so widely available that subsidies might no longer be necessary. “At what point should policymakers conclude that the program’s core objective has been achieved?” it asked.The move is vigorously opposed by the School Superintendents Association and the American Library Association, which implored its members to weigh in. “If funding is eliminated or reduced, libraries across the country could face difficult choices between maintaining internet access and funding other essential services,” the library association said in an email blast to its members.Jamar Rahming, CEO of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, a 27-branch system outside Cleveland, says a reduction of subsidies could jeopardize digital access that allows residents to apply for jobs, join telehealth medical appointments, and video chat with relatives overseas.The change could also imperil library programs that train workers in the use of artificial intelligence, which have become critical in a region hard-hit by the loss of blue-collar jobs, Mr. Rahming says.Roughly 250 miles away in Lansing, Michigan, Sheryl Knox, the technology director of the Capital Area District Libraries, a 14-branch system that serves 244,000 people in both urban and rural areas, said a rollback of subsidies could lead her system to cut back on mobile hot spots that allow residents without high-speed internet to watch streaming movies and listen to audiobooks at home.Changes could also raise administrative costs. “Everything runs through the internet,” Ms. Knox says, “all patron records, the library catalogue, when someone places a hold that’s on our server. If we have to pay more for that, it’s less for everything else.”The $2.5 billion in annual support provided to schools and libraries is covered by fees paid by telecommunications companies.The subsidy has long been a target of President Trump’s inner circle. Last year, the America First Legal Foundation, founded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, filed an amicus brief in a failed legal challenge that asked the Supreme Court to rule E-Rate unconstitutional.In The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, widely viewed to be the Trump administration’s policy framework, now-FCC Chairman Brendan Carr wrote it was time to “end wasteful broadband spending policies.”Innovations such as low-orbit satellite services from StarLink and Amazon “counsel in favor of eliminating many of the heavy-handed FCC regulations,” Mr. Carr wrote, in a chapter that targeted “universal service requirements.”In its request for public comment this week, the FCC laid out a number of possibilities, including restricting internet subsidies to rural schools and libraries, excluding areas with larger tax bases, or eliminating subsidies entirely.Any of these changes would mean massive cuts to large, urban school districts: $360 million was committed to the New York City Department of Education from 2021 to 2025, with $202 million designated to the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to the School Superintendents Association.Mr. Carr has called for a “top-to-bottom review.”Because E-Rate was created by Congress, any major changes could face a legal challenge.The split is not entirely partisan. Last year, a long list of Republican lawmakers – including Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Roger Marshall of Kansas, and Mike Crapo of Idaho – joined Democratic colleagues in defending the program in an amicus brief filed before the Supreme Court.“The world is more interconnected than ever, making consistent and reliable access to communications services a necessity for full participation in society,” the lawmakers wrote.The FCC’s deadline for public comment is Oct. 13, setting up a process that could lead to new rules early next year.