Rural Alaska schools despite Gov. Mike Dunleavy鈥檚 veto of a multipart education bill this week.

Early Thursday morning, the Alaska House of Representatives voted 36-4 to advance , which offers rural schools as much as $39.4 million in state aid to match federal dollars intended to improve their internet service.

Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham and the leading House lawmaker behind the bill, said he expects the Senate to take it up speedily and said the governor鈥檚 office has told him that Dunleavy is inclined to allow it to become law.

Legislators must act quickly: March 27 is the final federal deadline for rural school districts to apply for funding that pays for nine in every 10 dollars of their internet bills.

If districts miss that deadline, they won鈥檛 be able to reapply until next year.

Currently, the districts are limited to speeds of 25 megabits per second, slow enough that it no longer qualifies as 鈥渂roadband鈥� under published by the Federal Communications Commission last week.

HB 193 provides a state match for federal funding that pays for speeds of up to 100 mbps.

鈥淣o. 1, we don鈥檛 have much time left. We have seven days until there鈥檚 an absolutely hard stop,鈥� Edgmon said late Wednesday night.

Last year, 151 schools benefited from the program, but many have said that the current limits on bandwidth and speed are too low for modern use.

鈥淲e鈥檙e in an era when schools are relying more and more on better internet speeds for everything from teleconferencing to taking tests 鈥� it鈥檚 become an essential service,鈥� Edgmon said.

Rep. Thomas Baker, R-Kotzebue, said that in some of the schools he represents, it might take 15 minutes to open a Wikipedia page, and that some administrators have to cut internet to parts of their school building to ensure that there鈥檚 enough bandwidth for other students.

Rep. Alyse Galvin, I-Anchorage, urged lawmakers to support the bill, citing public testimony that showed it took some students four days to take an online test because of inadequate internet. Students in Anchorage could complete the test in a single day, she said.

鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to have a system of public education, then we need to make sure this gets leveled out,鈥� she said.

Funding for the improved internet program had been included in Senate Bill 140, comprehensive education legislation that passed the House and Senate in February, but Dunleavy vetoed the bill and on Monday, lawmakers failed by a single vote to override the veto.

House Rules Committee Chair Craig Johnson, R-Anchorage, said the push to get HB 193 through the House late Wednesday and early Thursday was at least partially attributable to the Alaska Beacon鈥檚 reporting on the issue.

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鈥淚 represent a largely rural district in north-central, northeast Florida, and we have children who do their homework in a Hardee鈥檚 parking lot,鈥� said U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, a Florida Republican.

Students around the country scrambled to find internet access to participate in virtual learning when the pandemic limited in-person classes. It was a reminder that federal funds should be focused on providing broadband access to as many Americans as possible, Cammack said, rather than increasing the speeds of existing service.

Several members of the House鈥檚 Commodity Exchanges, Energy and Credit subcommittee echoed those concerns about so-called 鈥渙verbuilding鈥� of existing infrastructure during a March 8 hearing that sought to review the rural development component of the next farm bill, which could be approved next year.

The current farm bill was last renewed in 2018 and partially expires next year. It鈥檚 a wide-ranging law that was expected to cost about $428 billion over the course of five years. About three-fourths of that money is devoted to food assistance for low-income residents, and most of the rest goes to crop insurance, commodity support and land conservation.

Previous farm bills provided loans to develop internet infrastructure, but for the first time in 2018, lawmakers also established grants for the projects and raised the minimum speed thresholds that define whether an area has sufficiently fast access, according to the Congressional Research Service. The previous download speed considered sufficient was 4 megabits per second, which was increased to 25.

Xochitl Torres Small, undersecretary for rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said establishing broadband access for as many rural residents as possible is a paramount priority that must be balanced with other projects that will allow for speed upgrades.

鈥淲e certainly saw in the midst of COVID, with your kids who are sitting in the Hardee鈥檚 parking lot, that 25 (megabits per second) isn鈥檛 enough for them to be able to listen to their teacher and learn from home,鈥� Torres Small said.

Lawmakers also created the ReConnect Program in 2018 that is separate from the farm bill鈥檚 Rural Broadband Program but has similar goals, and states have implemented their own programs.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has made , proposing in his State of the State address this year $400 million for broadband access, with $250 million to reach approximately 75,000 households without access to even moderately fast internet connections.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on and .

LaDonna Squiemphen has a satellite dish from Warm Springs Telecom and a mobile broadband hotspot from her grandchildren鈥檚 school district. But even with both devices, Squiemphen said that internet access at her home is still spotty, especially in high winds or snow, which aren鈥檛 unusual on the Warm Springs Reservation.

鈥淲e鈥檙e out in the open. We have very little shelter from the wind when it comes,鈥� said Squiemphen, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs who works as a juvenile prosecutor for the tribal government.

Squiemphen lives with her husband and four of her grandchildren 鈥� a 15-year-old freshman, a 13-year-old seventh-grader, and two fourth-graders who are both 10, but four months apart in age 鈥� 18 miles from the town of Warm Springs.

Sometimes her grandchildren can鈥檛 access the internet to attend online classes at the Jefferson County School District, she said. They get marked absent if they鈥檙e not logged in, even when it鈥檚 not their fault.

鈥淚鈥檝e had to fight for them because it鈥檚 not perfect reception,鈥� Squiemphen said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard because the tribe lacks the up-to-date equipment to make the internet work.鈥�

Broadband access in rural areas, and particularly on reservations, has been a problem since the 1990s, when the internet went from being a niche network for scientists and academics to something ordinary people accessed for work, school, and entertainment.

According to a Census report , a vast majority of Oregon households 鈥� between 79.6% and 84.5% 鈥� subscribed to a broadband internet service, numbers similar to the rest of the U.S. By contrast, just 67% of Native Americans nationally had broadband access, and just over half 鈥� 53% 鈥� of Native Americans on tribal land had broadband subscriptions.

That chronic lack of access became acute when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many activities of daily life online.

鈥淲ith the COVID pandemic, most of our customers need to video conference with work and school, which was either a challenge or flat out impossible,鈥� said Tim York, general manager of Warm Springs Telecom, a utility owned by the tribal government.

Relief is on the Way

And with the pandemic came some long-overdue assistance. Two Oregon tribal nations received funding to upgrade their broadband infrastructure under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, according to Business Oregon, the state鈥檚 economic development agency. In 2020 Warm Springs Telecom received $492,290 in CARES funding to upgrade broadband capacity 鈥� specifically to upgrade office equipment and radio equipment on towers and in equipment huts. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeastern Oregon received about $1.75 million in CARES funding for broadband upgrades, including money the tribal government received directly from the federal government for work on a fiber-optic network.

And at the end of 2020, Congress passed an omnibus spending bill setting aside money tribal nations can use for broadband improvement. The bill included $1 billion for tribal broadband connectivity, $300 million for broadband infrastructure deployment, and $285 million for connecting minority communities.

York said the CARES Act grant enabled the utility to update the wireless network with all new equipment that gave customers access to internet speeds of 25 megabits per second, the minimum to meet the FCC definition of broadband.

He also said the utility will soon offer speeds of 100 megabits per second or more 鈥� which would put Warm Springs residents on par with Portlanders, who had an average connection speed of 110 megabits per second, according to a .

鈥淭he old broadband offering varied between 1.5-Mbps and 4-Mbps,鈥� York wrote in an email. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 do much with those speeds.鈥�

Access Still Limited

It鈥檚 hard to say exactly how much access reservation residents have to broadband: The FCC has been tracking internet access since the 1990s, but until recently, they whether it was possible to access the internet from a given Census block 鈥� not whether households in those blocks had internet service.

Even those numbers show a significant gap in access, however. The FCC鈥檚 published in January said that in 2019, more than 99% of Census blocks in U.S. urban areas have access to some broadband service, but only 65% of rural tribal lands have the same level of access.

The situation has improved in recent years 鈥� between 2018 and 2019, the deployment of high-speed internet access increased from approximately 46% to almost 50% on tribal lands 鈥� but the consensus is that when COVID-19 hit Oregon, many people living on reservations were not receiving internet service that allowed them to work from home or attend classes remotely.

Ryan Heinrich, the principal of Nixyaawii Community School, a charter school in Pendleton that serves Native American students, said in January that attendance was down 10%-12% from the same time last academic year, but that the numbers improved this academic year over last spring鈥檚 attendance, due in part to improved broadband access.

Every tribal member received a Chromebook in the spring, and while some students at the school are not enrolled in the tribe, the school was able to get devices to them too.

鈥淭he device was not the issue. It was the broadband access,鈥� Heinrich said.

Future Investment

Bruce Zimmerman, the tax administrator for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, said the CARES Act funding was enough to build a 鈥渇iber-optic backbone,鈥� the start of a fiber-optic network.

“Construction of the backbone began in December, with the goal being to roll out access to households this summer.”

鈥淎 number of Indian Reservations that I know about have extreme terrains 鈥� think Arizona desert,鈥� York, of Warm Springs Telecom, wrote in an email to Underscore. 鈥淚n the Willamette Valley to plow a fiber optic cable in the ground may cost around $5 per foot. When you are trying to dig through rock 鈥� the price skyrockets to $30+ per foot, making it impossible to place fiber cables to all customers. That is the problem with getting fiber to all of our customers here in Warm Springs, as it is with many other Indian Tribes.鈥�

There鈥檚 more federal funding on the horizon to get broadband into rural areas. York said Warm Springs Telecom is installing free Wi-Fi in the downtown Warm Springs area for students who have a difficult time getting reliable broadband at home.

He also says there is talk that the utility鈥檚 assistance program for low-income consumers will soon stop subsidizing voice service but will pick up broadband. A little more than a third of the utility鈥檚 650 customers qualify for the assistance, York said.

鈥淭his is huge, as one of the final barriers to internet is the cost,鈥� York said. 鈥淚nternet is not cheap.鈥� Warm Springs phone and internet bundles start at $36.99 per month and top out at $79.99 per month.

Squiemphen said in January that she was aware of the upgrades to the reservation鈥檚 Wi-Fi access, but 鈥渨e still have the issue with the weather.鈥� Her house just isn鈥檛 in the right position to pick up signal from the antenna, she said.

By early April, little had changed in her household: Schools had reopened but allowed students the option of continuing with distance learning, and her grandchildren chose to remain home.

The school district has switched to an online learning program that allows students to learn on their own schedule and seems to work better for students, but the connection is still sporadic, she said.

Gordon Scott has children in school in Warm Springs and also works as a community liaison for On Track Oregon Health and Science University, which partners with Oregon schools to increase the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds in the health sciences. He said he鈥檚 able to access the internet at home, but knows students who鈥檝e had to 鈥済et creative鈥� 鈥� driving two or three miles down the road to access the internet in their vehicles. Squiemphen said she saw a photo of a little boy using a device at the grocery store to attend school online, and she鈥檚 shown it to her children as inspiration to keep at it even when their connection is sporadic.

鈥淲e are very adamant about education in our household,鈥� Squiemphen said.

And the internet access at Scott鈥檚 home 鈥渄oes work, but it鈥檚 just very unstable and unpredictable. You have to make adjustments for how you鈥檙e using it,鈥� Scott says.

鈥淭he whole world has switched to doing things online and doing things at home,鈥� Squiemphen said. 鈥淔or us here in Warm Springs, it鈥檚 a bit of a different story. The internet is so vital. It鈥檚 kind of a leaky faucet in a poor home.鈥�

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