Dive Brief:

• A coalition of 10 education groups signed a letter to the Federal Communications Commission expressing support for a pending proposal to expand the E-Rate program.
• On Friday, the FCC will vote on the proposal, which, if passed, will result in $5 billon over the next five years being used to upgrade Wi-Fi services in schools and libraries across the nation.  
• Last month, a group of 13 education groups wrote a letter against the proposal, asking for basic connectivity issues to be dealt with before Wi-Fi takes center stage. The opposition group is fearful that small and rural schools will be hurt under the current proposal since Wi-Fi dollars will go to schools with bigger student bodies and more square footage first.  

Dive Insight:

Since 2013, the FCC's E-Rate program has been looking to get extra dollars for Wi-Fi expansion in schools. The plan is in line with President Barack Obama's ConnectED initiative, which hopes to provide Wi-Fi access to 99% of K-12 schools by 2017. A mild setback and scare was created, however, in May when a cost analysis by the Consortium for School Networking and the EducationSuperHighway estimated it would cost $3.2 billion to achieve President Obama's ConnectED vision.  The E-Rate expansion plan is clearly a response to this recent report.