Broadband equity initiatives bridge digital divide in K-12

E-Rate bridges the gap between urban, rural school districts

Rural communities typically have only a few options for network services. Providers don't compete for customers in those areas, so they have little financial reason to offer faster or less expensive services. Service providers in rural areas instead opt to provide cheaper, outdated legacy options, said Tyler Cooper, editor in chief of BroadbandNow Research, the analytics offshoot of BroadbandNow, a data aggregation company focused on internet connectivity.

"These communities have fewer broadband options overall and often are disproportionately disadvantaged when it comes to the access side of things," Cooper said.

This discrepancy prompted Pinal County, Ariz., to find a way to upgrade the networks in its school districts, said Peter Lin, associate superintendent of technology at Pinal County. Pinal County, located between the metropolitan counties of Maricopa and Pima, has dozens of schools that serve an approximate 45,000 students. Compared to its urbanized neighbors, Pinal County is a primarily rural area that had outdated infrastructure.

Service providers in the area were initially reluctant to upgrade their network infrastructure due to a lack of incentive, deeming an upgrade unprofitable due to the county's low population density, Lin said. As such, teachers -- who connected to networks via decades-old T1 network services -- resorted to instructing students with learning methods behind modern educational advances.

"The price and the speed [of the network] weren't equitable," Lin said. "This can impact student learning experiences, as they had to use traditional, '70s classroom methods, like the way I grew up."

Lin and his team wanted to provide modern learning experiences and ensure that Pinal County's students could stay level with their peers. They issued a request for proposal under the Federal Communications Commission's E-Rate program to receive funding to subsidize a network infrastructure upgrade project. The E-Rate program, backed by the Universal Service Administrative Company, provides affordable telecommunications and information services to schools and libraries.

Their request was approved, and Pinal County received a $30 million grant from E-Rate. The county then partnered with Zayo, a network communications infrastructure provider, to build fiber optic networks for its school districts. Zayo installed a 10 Gbps fiber optic backbone network for Pinal County's school districts. The upgraded network provided speeds more than 6,000 times faster than the legacy T1 internet lines at a $60 subsidy.

Pinal County experienced an additional value add as the infrastructure extended across the community to businesses and governments. But its school districts reaped the most benefits from the upgrade, thanks to networks on par with neighboring districts.

"We're equitable," Lin said. "We have the bandwidth needed to supply the same technology as large districts in Maricopa County. We're even here in Pinal County, and it's affordable."

Broadband equity initiatives bridge the divide

A 2023 report from BroadbandNow Research evaluated broadband coverage in counties with school-aged children across the U.S. Pinal County, in particular, now has wired broadband penetration of 73%, comparable to the national average of 75%.

Although an approximate three-quarters of U.S. children have access to broadband connectivity, nearly 1 million children live in counties with a broadband penetration of less than 50%. Insufficient access to network connectivity affects every aspect of life for children, Cooper said. Students without broadband access could fall behind in school, miss out on cultural experiences found online and lack access to higher education opportunities.

Efforts to bridge the digital divide have existed as long as the internet itself, Cooper said. But, when the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the disparity, the U.S. government implemented new measures to expand existing programs or develop new ones.

For example, E-Rate, which funded Pinal County's infrastructure upgrade, initially rolled out in 1996. The Biden administration has since introduced additional benefits to support the program, such as the recently proposed Learn Without Limits project to support Wi-Fi hotspots and add Wi-Fi support on school buses.

Pinal County also plans to take advantage of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program for additional upgrades. Signed into law by President Joe Biden in November 2021, the BEAD Program aims to deliver high-speed broadband internet access in underserved and rural areas. According to Lin, Pinal County plans to use funding from BEAD to add more fiber optic networks to the rural parts of the community.

The potential to support such efforts makes broadband equity programs, like BEAD, a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to provide network access to historically underserved and neglected areas, Cooper said. These programs are often marred by various issues, however, such as underfunding and political disagreements over which methodologies to use, he added.

For example, The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) -- a program that dedicated billions of dollars to provide discounts on internet connectivity to low-income households -- ended in June 2024 due to a lack of funding from Congress.

ACP wasn't developed solely to bridge the digital divide in education, but it provided children from low-income households with access to high-speed broadband at subsidized rates. In February 2024, Benenson Strategy Group surveyed 1,600 adults eligible for ACP, including 801 ACP participants, and found that 81% of parents who benefited from the program worried their children would fall behind in school if the program ended.

"The cancellation or reduction of funding for these programs can lead to increased disparities in digital access and equity, which, in turn, can have long-term adverse effects on educational outcomes, economic opportunities and overall community development," Cooper said.

Funding from the federal government is necessary to build the initial infrastructure in underserved communities, Cooper said, but it also helps create future-proof networks. Government support can fill in the gaps of the digital divide and build widely accessible networks with next-generation networking technology to support communities for years to come.

"The internet is an essential utility," Cooper said. "It isn't just a luxury and hasn't been for a long time. It's a practical necessity to maintain the standard of education, living and working that we've grown accustomed to in this digital era."

Deanna Darah is site editor for TechTarget's Networking site. She began editing and writing at TechTarget after graduating from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2021.