WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), co-chair of the Senate Broadband Caucus, joined 19 of his Senate colleagues in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), urging them to support more robust funding for all K-12 students to have adequate home internet connectivity if their schools close due to the ongoing pandemic in the next version of the coronavirus relief package. The Senators expressed their profound disappointment with the coronavirus relief package currently before the Senate, which fails to include adequate funding for students to learn at home.  With Maine being one of the most rural states in the nation, this is one of the reasons that Senator King has voted against proceeding to the bill currently under consideration.

“Children without connectivity are at risk of not only being unable to complete their homework during this pandemic, but being unable to continue their overall education,” write the Senators in their letter. “Congress must address this issue by providing additional financial support for home internet access in the next emergency relief package so that no child falls behind in their education.”

In their letter, the lawmakers specifically request at least $2 billion in E-Rate funds for schools and libraries to provide Wi-Fi hotspots or other devices with Wi-Fi capability to students without adequate connectivity at their home. The coronavirus pandemic has shone a bright light on the “homework gap” experienced by the 12 million students in this country who do not have internet access at home and are unable to complete their homework — at a time when more than 70 percent of educators assign schoolwork that requires internet access. Research has shown that the homework gap affects students in both rural and urban areas and disproportionately affects lower-income students and students of color. Students without internet access at home consistently score lower in reading, math, and science. Without Congressional action, this existing inequity will only be exacerbated by the high number of schools that are suspending in-person classes and have transitioned to remote learning over the internet to protect the health of students, faculty, and staff.

Last week, Senator King joined a group of his colleagues in calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to temporarily allow schools to utilize E-Rate program funding to provide Wi-Fi hotspots or devices with Wi-Fi capability to students who lack internet access at home. Earlier this month, Senator King sent a letter to the CEOs of eight major internet service providers (ISPs), calling on the companies to take steps to accommodate the unprecedented reliance we will likely see on telepresence services, including telework, online education, telehealth, and remote support services; in response to Senator King’s letter, several major ISPs took action to better support these remote technologies.

As a co-chair of the Senate Broadband Caucus, Senator King has been a strong advocate for broadband infrastructure initiatives and bridge the homework gap. In the February edition of Senator King’s monthly podcast, he was joined by Senator John Boozman (R-Ark.) and FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to discuss ways to close the digital divide experienced by rural communities across the nation. In April 2019, King introduced the Digital Equity Act of 2019, which would strengthens federal support for efforts to help ensure students, families, and workers have the information technology capacity needed to fully participate in society.

The full letter can be read below or downloaded HERE.

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Dear Leader McConnell and Chairman Wicker:

We write to express our profound disappointment with the coronavirus relief package that Senate Republicans proposed today. In its current form, this legislation fails to provide sufficient funding to help ensure that all K-12 students have adequate home internet connectivity if their schools close due to the ongoing pandemic. We believe that Congress must provide robust resources for these purposes, in order to guarantee that all children are able to continue their education during the current public health emergency. Simply put, we cannot bail out the airline industry to the tune of tens of billions while providing only pennies for our nation’s children.

The coronavirus pandemic has shone a bright light on the “homework gap” experienced by the 12 million students in this country who do not have internet access at home and are unable to complete their homework — at a time when more than 70% of educators assign schoolwork that requires internet access. Research has shown that the homework gap affects students in both rural and urban areas and disproportionately affects lower-income students and students of color. Students without internet access at home consistently score lower in reading, math, and science.

We are concerned that this existing inequity will only be exacerbated by the high number of schools that are suspending in-person classes and have transitioned to remote learning over the internet to protect the health of students, faculty, and staff. Children without connectivity are at risk of not only being unable to complete their homework during this pandemic, but being unable to continue their overall education. Congress must address this issue by providing additional financial support for home internet access in the next emergency relief package so that no child falls behind in their education.

We specifically request that you include at least $2 billion in E-Rate funds for schools and libraries to provide Wi-Fi hotspots or other devices with Wi-Fi capability to students without adequate connectivity at their home. The E-Rate program is, and has been for over two decades, an essential source of funding to connect the nation’s schools and libraries to the internet. As the coronavirus pandemic develops, this program offers a solution that may help mitigate the impact on our most vulnerable families. We believe additional funding for E-Rate would greatly narrow the homework gap during the current crisis and help ensure that all students can continue to learn.

Congress must act in light of the unprecedented disruption that the coronavirus has created for our education system. We must work to close the homework gap and ensure that all students who need internet access have the connectivity they need to continue learning from home.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Due to the closure of many Senate offices during the coronavirus outbreak, physical signatures are unavailable. The listed senators have asked to be signatories to this letter.

CC:     The Honorable Charles E. Schumer, Minority Leader, United States Senate

The Honorable Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation