June 13, 2018
Voqal is proud to support S. 2958. This bill, sponsored by Sen. Udall and Sen. Gardner, would allow the use of E-rate funds for wireless access on school buses. This legislation would help address one of the most significant challenges students and educators face today – the homework gap.
As an Educational Broadband Service (EBS) licensee working tirelessly to address the homework gap and increase broadband access for low-income Americans via our Mobile Citizen project, we believe this legislation would provide an important tool to combat this problem.
This legislation is not just a good idea in theory. The Coachella Valley School District near Riverside, California, offers one superb success story. In 2013-2014, the district initiated a program to get devices in the hands of all students, 100 percent of which qualify for free or reduced-priced meals. Knowing that many students lacked broadband access at home, the district equipped buses with Wi-Fi hotspots for students to utilize en route to and from school. In addition, the district took the novel approach of parking the buses in low-income neighborhoods overnight, offering additional access to students.
To learn more about this important legislation and how Mobile Citizen is helping educators address the homework gap visit mobilecitizen.org.