As superintendent of Desert Sands Unified in California’s Coachella Valley, Kelly May-Vollmar has a hard time naming a system that’s not somehow connected to the district’s broadband network.

Parents can check a school bus tracking app to make sure their child arrived on time. Cafeteria staff don’t use cash registers; kids’ meal accounts are linked to the cloud. Even grounds crews depend on external wireless access points to maintain the fields and landscaping at the district’s 34 schools.

“They’re running our sprinkler systems off iPads,” May-Vollmar said.

Her district is like the across the country that apply each year for discounts on broadband service through a federal program called E-Rate. High-poverty districts like Desert Sands save up to 90% of the cost of connecting their schools and classrooms to the internet.

But the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the program Congress created 30 years ago, has launched a “top-to-bottom” evaluation that has leaders of the nation’s school districts on edge. The FCC is collecting views on how the program should be reformed or even whether it should be abandoned altogether because it “has fulfilled” its mission. In addition to asking whether the benefit should be restricted to rural districts, the agency links E-Rate to present-day concerns over screen time. Oct. 13 and replies are due Nov. 12.

The proposal is “aimed at empowering parents and ensuring that our E-Rate program produces the great educational outcomes stakeholders have intended,” FCC Chairman in early June when he announced the review. In , the far-right Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for the Trump administration, Carr said because of advancements in technology, decisions about the program “should be made with an eye to right-sizing the federal government’s existing broadband initiatives.”

The review process has left ed tech leaders both confused and ready to fight.

“They’re asking us to comment on a potential rulemaking and they haven’t told us what the rules would be,” said Keith Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking, a leading ed tech professional organization. He called the initial the FCC released “so extraordinarily broad and comprehensive” that they’re too overwhelming for the average district leader to address. “We’re going to have to be very loud and noisy as a community to our members of Congress and to governors to say ‘Hands off the E-Rate.’ ” 

As in Desert Sands, districts depend on internet access for a lot more than classroom instruction, including taking attendance and managing payroll. But it’s how students use the internet at school that has taken over the discussion about updating the program.

“Historically, underserved students lacked access to computers and technology, and efforts were made to ‘close the digital divide,’ “ said Emily Cherkin, a Seattle-based consultant and leading figure in the battle against “big tech.” In 2026, she said, “the pendulum has swung too far.”

In January, she , saying that children’s access to the internet has led to “catastrophic” impacts on their mental health, learning and development. In response to those concerns, some states are . Parents are demanding the chance to of apps and learning platforms, and others, including Cherkin, are suing and publishers, accusing them of and .  

‘A connectivity program’

Groups like the Consortium for School Networking have called for a balanced approach before the valid concerns over kids’ time online threatens the loss of a program that saves schools and libraries over $2.5 billion each year. 

The discounts apply to high-speed internet service as well as Wi-Fi access points, routers and switches. Desert Sands, for example, is currently upgrading such equipment district-wide — a $1 million project that is only costing the district $200,000 because of the discount. But E-Rate benefits don’t extend to devices for students, digital content or software licenses. 

E-Rate “is a connectivity program,” Krueger said. “It’s not an education program.” 

Last week, CoSN released highlighting examples of “purposeful” technology use and stressed that there’s a difference between a student scrolling social media during the school day and another working with a classmate on a multimedia project. 

“The goal is not simply to reduce or increase screen time,” the report says. “The goal is to ensure that every use of technology has a clear instructional purpose.”

But Cherkin is skeptical of what she calls the industry’s “.” As long as students are spending time on a device, she wrote that it doesn’t matter whether they have high-quality materials. Her years as a former middle school English teacher in Seattle private schools, from 2003 to 2015, helped to shape her views on technology. Schools had computer labs and a dedicated technology teacher, a model she’d like to see reinstated. That arrangement evolved into reserving a cart with laptops that she would bring to her classroom when needed.

The turning point, she said, was when she started uploading grades into a digital portal.

“Instead of coming to talk to me directly and having a conversation about what they might need to do to improve 
 they were instead directed to a digital platform that had a number or letter grade, which told them very little overall,” she said. “I saw it devaluing the experience of learning to be a student who could self-advocate.”

Parents, whom she described as “highly anxious,” constantly checked the portal and emailed her about why their children didn’t get an A or were missing a grade. Despite her concerns over the internet’s impact on students, she still supports the argument that access should be universally available. 

‘Pulling out the rug’

For Krueger and others who fought to increase access for students in schools and homes, this moment feels like a giant step backward. As founder of EducationSuperhighway, a nonprofit, Evan Marwell advocated for a fiber connection to every school in the nation, reaching . 

“There are a lot of good uses of technology in classrooms,” he said. “Pulling out the rug from teachers and students on all those good uses would be, in my opinion, a big mistake.” 

During the pandemic, his organization pivoted to signing up low-income families for discounted high-speed service at home so students wouldn’t have to sit in McDonalds’ parking lots to pick up Wi-Fi to do homework.

Last fall, in its first move toward rolling back federal broadband initiatives, the FCC at-home and school bus Wi-Fi access from the program, features that were added during the Biden administration. The move, Carr said in , would end what he called “illegal funding” of young kids’ unsupervised screen time.

Sen. Edward Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who wrote the E-Rate program as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act said in that the decision would “leave low-income, rural and marginalized communities disconnected.” 

The FCC asks whether E-Rate should be “limited or sunset,” considering the nearly universal access in schools. But Kevin Taglang, an executive editor with the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, a nonprofit, that high-poverty districts receiving the largest discounts serve more than 16 million students. In Desert Sands, those kids have parents who work at the resorts, golf courses and restaurants across Palm Springs.

“Any eligibility change that removes these schools from the program, or substantially reduces their discount levels, would fall hardest on the students and districts least able to absorb the loss,” he wrote.

Preventing fraud

Conservatives first tried to end E-Rate through a 2023 lawsuit. Consumers Research, a nonprofit, argued that the FCC’s arrangement with the Universal Service Administrative Company, the private entity that , was illegal and gave too much power to a federal agency. But in a 6-3 decision last year, the U.S. Supreme Court .

The Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog agency, highlighted E-Rate in a , saying that out of five government programs evaluated, it was the only one following all nine recommended practices for preventing fraud, waste and abuse. That was a big improvement over a , which flagged the program for “several key fraud risks.” 

Krueger, with CoSN, said some improvements to E-Rate are needed, like more “serious funding” for cybersecurity. 

“Having broadband that is at risk for cyber attacks isn’t helpful,” he said. 

Between July 2023 and December 2024, 82% of schools experienced some type of cyber incident, such as a ransomware attack, a data breach or a phishing attempt, according to last year from the nonprofit Center for Internet Security. When the FCC opened up a $200 million E-Rate cybersecurity pilot program in 2024, the demand was huge. The agency totaling $3.7 billion. 

Krueger, however, questions whether the FCC is the right agency to determine whether Wi-Fi access is harming students’ learning. That, he said, should be the responsibility of the Office of Educational Technology, which the Trump administration gutted last year when it eliminated roughly half of the Department of Education’s staff.

At a late July gathering in Washington, Amber Davis, chief of staff in the Department of Education’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, told advocates from about 22 states that there is still an ed tech office at the agency, according to CoSN Chair Stacy Hawthorne. The attendees, Hawthorne said, joked that it may only exist on paper. 

The department did not respond to questions about the makeup of the office. But on Thursday it issued that tries to redirect the debate over ed tech away from screen time. Ed tech “should not be evaluated solely by the amount of time students spend using it,” it said, adding that district spending on technology should be “guided by evidence of effectiveness.”

The July event was one of several likely to occur over the next couple months as leaders advocate to preserve E-Rate. With this year’s application period already complete, the FCC on July 29 that the program still exists and that its “notice of potential rulemaking” won’t immediately result in a loss of funding. 

If the administration scales back or discontinues E-Rate, district leaders say they’ll have to make up the difference somehow. LaTonya Goffney, superintendent of the Aldine Independent School District, near Houston, said with 86% of her district’s budget tied up in personnel, she would have to cut staff or programs to replace the more than $2 million saved each year from discounts.

“The utilities, the transportation — all of those things we can’t eliminate,” she said. “We still have to provide those for our students.”

In Desert Sands, May-Vollmar added that because E-Rate requires , the cost of broadband service for schools would likely increase if the program is gone. For her, unlimited Wi-Fi in the classroom replicates the real-world for students. 

“You and I don’t schedule time to go to a computer lab,” she said. “At work, if I say ‘Everybody, go get your computer,’ we have that ability. I want that ability in the classroom, too.”

But the narrow, 45-day window for districts to apply comes in the middle of the summer as leaders are scrambling to prepare for a new school year and face a host of unknowns.

“I think a lot of schools are going to say, ‘We can’t do it,’” said Evan Marwell, CEO of nonprofit Education SuperHighway, a nonprofit working to improve at-home broadband service for students.

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If they don’t apply for the new , part of the American Rescue Plan, districts could miss out on critical funding at a time when demand for remote learning options this fall is increasing. While most say they’re committed to fully reopening, concerns about rising COVID-19 cases are prompting more parents to push for virtual learning. The question is whether students — especially those in lower-income homes — will still have to contend with glitchy Zoom sessions or getting kicked off line in the middle of submitting assignments.

Home internet access has increased substantially in recent years, but 11 percent of families still depend on mobile devices for service, according to released last month from New America and Rutgers University. Among those with at-home broadband service, more than half described their service as too slow.

A by the Consortium for School Networking, a professional group for district technology leaders, showed that almost three-quarters of respondents said they plan to apply for the new federal funds. But only 170 members took the survey. A spokeswoman for the Federal Communications Commission, which runs the program, said the agency doesn’t have data on how many districts have applied so far. Christine Fox, senior director of external relations at the Consortium, added that some districts are waiting for a second application window, but the FCC said there’s no guarantee there will be one.

‘COVID numbers increasing’

Arkansas is among the states where some districts are applying for the technology fund and seeing a growing demand for remote learning. Applications from districts that want to offer virtual academies have been pouring into the education department. In mid-June, Don Benton, assistant commissioner for research and technology, had received 125 requests. By last week, most of those had been approved, with at least another 75 pending.

Benton expected as much, with “COVID numbers increasing 
 due the abysmal number of people getting vaccinated and taking the vaccination, social distancing, and precautions seriously.” Less than half of the state’s vaccine-eligible population has had one dose, according to .

In other parts of the country, many districts decided to continue offering virtual learning to accommodate parent demand — even before COVID cases began to rise again. showed two-thirds of the nation’s top districts will offer virtual academies, and the Austin Independent School District in Texas, even its virtual learning program for elementary students outside the district.

The Harrison School District in northwest Arkansas is among those putting final touches on a connectivity fund application and planning to use the money for more hotspots.

Susan Gilley, the district’s executive director of federal programs, said she’s most concerned about students having reliable internet and those “that live so remotely that even cellular Wi-Fi is unavailable.” The district is allowing remote learning for third grade and above.

The 2,700-student district supplied 100 families with hotspots last school year and plans to increase that to 1,000, Gilley said. The district also hopes to purchase 1,100 devices for students and outfit its entire fleet of 37 buses with Wi-Fi routers, up from eight last year.

But some experts want districts to think beyond devices.

“Districts for the most part have plenty of tools already,” said Joseph South, chief learning officer at the International Society for Technology in Education.

The uncertainty about reopening means districts need to be ready to adapt to changing situations, he said. Even if schools don’t close completely this fall because of positive case rates, there have already been examples of students being .

Successful models, South said, “require an approach where technology is being used face-to-face in ways that are effective each day, but that also lay a foundation for a shift to more reliance on the technology if face-to-face engagement has to be curtailed.”

Benton, in Arkansas, added that if districts are going to allow remote learning, he’d like them to give parents better information on how to keep students at home on track. A from the University of Missouri showed that the transition to remote learning put particular stress on Black families who often lacked reliable internet and the technological know-how to keep students connected.

“We can have the best technology, teachers and tools available, but without quality family engagement, we are missing a huge piece for student success,” Benton said.

‘Not all hotspots are equal’

The Emergency Connectivity Fund is similar to an existing internet discount program for schools and libraries, known as E-Rate. Funds can cover the cost of devices, hotspots and routers on Wi-Fi-enabled buses. Larger districts with technology departments might be in a better position to develop strong plans and meet the program’s requirements, Marwell said. But others might just buy more hotspots because that’s easier than negotiating a plan with an internet provider to provide service to students’ homes.

In general, hotspots are only as good as the surrounding cell service, meaning they provide spotty connections in a lot of rural areas and often aren’t strong enough for multiple family members to be online at one time. Wired connections, linked to fiber-optic cable, are faster and more reliable, but many communities still don’t have service. That’s one need the infrastructure bill, which the Senate was expected to pass Tuesday, would address.

Hotspots “worked great for some students,” Marwell said, “but that didn’t work well for a lot of students.”

After a year in which some students had no face-to-face learning, researchers have a better handle on where the nation’s broadband infrastructure fell short in meeting the needs of families with multiple children learning at home.

As the nation transitioned to remote work and learning, complaints to the FCCskyrocketed, according to a recent Carnegie Mellon University . Most users complained that providers offered faster “downstream” service — the ability to download files or videos — than the “upstream” capabilities needed to submit files like school assignments.

“The implications for [internet service providers] are obvious,” the authors wrote. “Even after COVID-19 has been tamed, we will probably see more people working and going to school from home than before the pandemic.” The authors said providers will have to reconsider the speed customers need to upload data “or risk becoming less competitive.”

Companies marketing internet solutions to districts are also trying to address families’ frustrations with unreliable service. Last month, Kajeet — known for enabling school buses to blast Wi-Fi into neighborhoods with limited broadband — launched its new , a fixed connection suitable for households with multiple family members online.

Michael Flood, Kajeet’s senior vice president for education and general manager, added that hotspots are still a better solution for students who aren’t always learning at home. “Not all hotspots are equal,” he said, adding that some are five times as fast as the ones many districts purchased and distributed last year.

In Congress, Democrats in the House and Senate are hoping to turn the temporary Emergency Connectivity Fund into a five-year, $40 billion program. The proposed could turn up as future legislation under the $3.5 trillion Democrats unveiled Monday.

For now, districts are trying to comply with the fine print for the new program. That includes estimating how many students need devices or internet service.

Another requirement is that districts can’t use the funds to provide devices or broadband to students who have been served under another state or federal program, such as last year’s relief funds. In fact, in some districts where students already had devices, officials used those earlier funds to pay for at-home internet. That’s one reason why they’re waiting for a second application window as their needs this year become clearer.

The connectivity fund “is an off-shoot of a program that has a history of being tight on rules and regulations,” Marwell said, referring to E-Rate. “The last thing a school wants to do is spend a million on home broadband and find out they didn’t follow these rules.”