Once again, despite the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. Taxpayer funds earmarked for relief checks are still being given out to government funded business that are no longer shut down after millions went out of business during the past several years. The Federal Communications Commission today announced it is committing nearly $21 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country. Of course, that was meant for being able to connect kids with no internet options to the school for remote learning. Today’s funding commitment supports applications from the first and third application windows, benefiting approximately 55,000 students across the country, including students in California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico. Interesting to note, none of these schools are closed to students, which begs the question, why? Why is the FCC and other government agencies still spending our money on these types of programs rather than give the funds back at least to the general fund of the United States?
“This program provides critical digital tools to connect students with their teachers and online homework,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “This latest round of funding continues our progress in working to close the Homework Gap.”
Well, that sounds great, but these funds were not meant to make it so our students no longer need to appear in school or the classroom. Although some schools with such funding are doing things like no longer offering snow days for kids, instead requiring them to work online rather than interface with thei teachers and peers in the school envionment. This of course is leading some parents to consider why they are sending their kids to school at all, when they can obviously do all of their learning online. The unfortunate result may be less funding for schools overall depsite programs like these as most funding is based on actual physical attendance at the school.
The Emergency Connectivity Program, which launched in 2021, has provided schools and libraries three different “application windows” for schools and libraries to apply for support. Today’s announcement will support approximately 50 schools, 5 libraries, and 3 consortia. Of the approximately $6.65 billion in funding commitments approved to date, approximately $4.14 billion is supporting applications from Window 1; $834 million from Window 2; and $1.68 billion from Window 3.
Again, originally for relief during the pandemic, the FCC release the statement that "The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, to ensure students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education."
To date, the program has provided support to approximately 11,000 schools, 1,000 libraries, and 100 consortia, and provided nearly 13 million connected devices and over 8 million broadband connections. Many of them received these funds well after new cases became negligible and deaths few and rare.
More details about which schools and libraries have already received funding commitments can be found on the FCC's website: here.
