FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel coined the term ‘homework gap’ in 2012 to describe the difficulty millions of students have when completing online school assignments
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week announced additional funding for digital student services totaling more than $77 million. The funds are being provided through the Emergency Connectivity Program and will help close the “homework gap”, a term coined by the now FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in 2012 to describe the difficulty that millions of students — particularly poor, minority and rural students — have when completing online school assignments once they leave the school campus. During the pandemic, when distance learning become the norm, this gap became more apparent and more devastating.
“The homework gap is real. Too many kids still lack access to the internet after the school day,” Rosenworcel said in a recent statement. “We’re working hard to fix this, and this program is providing millions of students with the essential digital tools they need to succeed in school.”
The FCC launched the Emergency Connectivity Program last year and to date, over $5.6 billion has been committed to schools and libraries. In addition, the program has provided support to roughly 10,000 schools, 900 libraries and 100 consortia, as well as nearly 12 million connected devices and over 7 million broadband connections. The latest round of funding will support approximately 175,000 students across the country, including those in Colorado, Kansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Puerto Rico and Washington.
“The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, to ensure students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education,” the FCC stated.
In 2020, Common Sense and Boston Consulting Group conducted a survey that revealed the harsh reality of the homework gap. The results indicated that five to 16 million kids — three to four million more children than previous estimates — and as many as 400,000 teachers lack adequate internet or computing devices at home.
Students and teachers are, of course, not the only community members that need, and also lack, reliable connectivity in rural areas across the U.S. Last year, Congress passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal that earmarks $65 billion into broadband expansion, affordability and middle-mile infrastructure. While there was some debate over whether broadband should be considered “infrastructure,” the majority of both Democrat and Republican Senators ultimately agreed that it is, in fact, “essential to full participation in modern life” in this country, as it was put when the bill passed the Senate in August 2021.
