SETDA Executive Director, Candice Dodson said, “the Chairman’s proposal cites dated uses of EBS licenses and the FCC’s two-decade failure to grant new licenses as the basis for handing the spectrum to private providers that have repeatedly failed to address rural America’s homework gap.” She added, “there is no sound reason to deprive state education agencies and school districts at least one opportunity to use new EBS licenses to promote broadband innovation, including through public-private partnerships.”
SETDA opposes the FCC’s proposal to sweep the E-rate and other Universal Service Fund programs under a single budgetary cap and “prioritize” them. The USF is a vital tool for state leaders working to connect students to high capacity broadband at school and at home and this proposal threatens the system’s success.
SETDA’s Executive Director, Candice Dodson, said “Congress designed the USF programs to work cooperatively – not competitively – to meet consumers’ telecommunications needs. SETDA urges commissioners to abandon this approach and instead focus on identifying new ways to help state leaders develop the infrastructure required to close broadband gaps.”
SETDA strongly opposes Chairman Pai’s draft Educational Broadband Service Report & Order, which proposes to further marginalize rural students that lack access to high capacity broadband.
SETDA opposes the