Amid critical need, Fort Worth schools project to expand broadband access is delayed
Fort Worth Star-Telegram 1 hr ago Silas Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
May 17 Fort Worth school officials have pushed back a plan to bring broadband internet service to students in underserved parts of the district.
School officials plan to build towers across the district to provide public wifi access to neighborhoods where many students don t have high-speed internet service at home. In November, Fort Worth Superintendent Kent Scribner told the Star-Telegram he expected the first towers could be completed in six months if voters approved a property tax increase. But six months later, a district spokesman said last week the project is currently on a new timeline following the hiring of a new chief information officer in January.
Fort Worth, Texas, Schools Delay Broadband Expansion
School officials have delayed a plan to bring broadband to students in underserved parts of the district, planning to build towers that provide public Wi-Fi access to neighborhoods where students lack service at home.
May 17, 2021 • (TNS) Fort Worth school officials have pushed back a plan to bring broadband internet service to students in underserved parts of the district.
School officials plan to build towers across the district to provide public wifi access to neighborhoods where many students don t have high-speed internet service at home. In November, Fort Worth Superintendent Kent Scribner told the Star-Telegram he expected the first towers could be completed in six months if voters approved a property tax increase. But six months later, a district spokesman said last week the project is currently on a new timeline following the hiring of a new chief information officer in Janu
FCC Announces New Program, Guidelines for School Broadband
The Federal Communications Commission has announced rules for its new Emergency Connectivity Fund, which will distribute $7.17 billion announced earlier this year for school broadband and devices.
May 12, 2021 •
Shutterstock The Federal Communications Commission this week released the guidelines for its new Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF), which will use $7.1 billion approved earlier this year to assist schools and libraries in connecting students to broadband Internet for remote and hybrid learning.
Though the funding has been lauded as a step toward closing the digital divide, ed-tech policy advocates from the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition said its current regulations still leave much to be desired in terms of flexibility for schools seeking to apply for the program.
05/04/21
The current FCC definition of home broadband 25 Mbps download and
3 Mbps upload speeds is inadequate for at-home learning,
according to researchers who conducted a first-of-its-kind study of
district data for students engaged in remote learning.
The Student
Home Connectivity Study, conducted by CoSN,
the Consortium for School Networking, with funding from the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative, looked at data from 13 (mostly large) school
districts representing more than 750,000 students. It found that
activities requiring high bandwidth, such as watching and sending
video, are prevalent in remote learning and that such activities
require much faster broadband at home.
Among the findings: More than 70% of students live in a household with other students;