No Broadband, No Education
From the USW
From tumbledown bridges to decrepit roads and failing water systems, crumbling infrastructure undermines America’s safety and prosperity. In coming weeks, Union Matters will delve into this neglect and the urgent need for a rebuilding campaign that creates jobs, fuels economic growth and revitalizes communities.
COVID-19 this spring forced tens of thousands of students in the Fontana, Calif., Unified School District (FUSD), like students across the nation, to learn from home. So the district—including members of USW Local 8599—leapt into action to help ensure all students could log into class.
The district established a private network to deliver high-speed wireless internet to students and teachers in their homes, while USW members in the technology and library departments distributed laptops to all 36,000 students.
The massive undertaking—condensing a project originally slated for three years into just three months—demonstrates the power of committing to widely-needed infrastructure projects that can quickly and efficiently provide students with the broadband access that is now every bit as essential as electricity.
Yet, local solutions can only take the nation so far, as millions of other students and educators across the country still struggle to get online. Only a national effort, initiated and funded by Congress, can provide the universal broadband access required for education in 2020.
So far, congressional Republicans and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have done little to solve the broadband divide issue for students, forcing superintendents to scrape together funds and find piecemeal solutions.
Numerous Democratic bills, including the Moving Forward Act, passed by the House in July, and the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act, recently introduced in the House and Senate, include plans to fund broadband infrastructure. But the Republican Senate has dragged its feet on these and other important coronavirus relief bills.
The 12 million American students without internet at home will continue to fall further behind as universal broadband is delayed.
The Fontana school district proved that expanding broadband infrastructure is not only possible, but is necessary for the future of education. Now, thousands of other school districts around the country need resources for similar projects.
It is time for Congress to commit to long-range broadband investments that will help students learn and keep the nation connected.
