{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140223220039/http://delbene.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congresswoman-delbene-leads-bipartisan-letter-to-fcc-chairman-wheeler", "Congresswoman DelBene Leads Bipartisan Letter to FCC Chairman Wheeler Urging Action to Improve Internet Access in Schools", "2013-12-19", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "WA", "Suzan DelBene", "D000617", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Congresswoman DelBene Leads Bipartisan Letter to FCC Chairman Wheeler Urging Action to Improve Internet Access in Schools\nBOTHELL \u2013 Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01), along with 25 other members of Congress, sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging action to improve and modernize the federal E-rate program, which has provided critical discounts for schools and libraries for telecommunications and Internet services since its enactment in 1997.\nIn addition to Congresswoman DelBene, signatories on the letter include Representatives Jared Polis (CO-02), Chris Gibson (NY-19), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Don Young (AK), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Derek Kilmer (WA-06), Denny Heck (WA-10), and 18 other members of the House.\n\u201cClosing the education gap means ensuring that our schools and libraries have access to digital learning opportunities that require high-speed broadband. However, too many of our children are currently trying to learn skills for tomorrow with outdated infrastructure from the past,\u201d the members wrote. They go on to urge the FCC commissioners to \u201csupport swift action to modernize and expand the E-rate program to bring transformative learning opportunities to every school in America.\u201d\nThe letter calls on the FCC to update E-rate by focusing the program on high-speed broadband connectivity and long-term infrastructure investments, creating an upgrade fund to connect every school and library across the U.S. to high-speed Internet, increasing the program\u2019s accountability and transparency, and streamlining its onerous paperwork requirements to ensure more funding is focused on delivering direct investments into schools and classrooms.\n\u201cWe recognize the great value of the E-rate program to K-12 schools in Washington, and strongly support modernization of the program to improve broadband access to all schools in our state,\u201d said Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn in his support of the congressional letter to the FCC.\n\u201cWe have several schools in rural areas of our district that do not have adequate high-speed Internet access, which I am sure is also true of many other districts in our state,\u201d said Darrell Heisler, the Sedro-Woolley School District Executive Director of Technology. \u201cExpanding access to high-speed broadband across our state should be a top priority.\u201d\nThe average American school has about the same bandwidth as the average American home, but with 200 times as many users. In total, an estimated 40 million of America\u2019s students in K-12 schools do not have the Internet access they need to succeed in the global economy.\nThe E-rate program was established by Congress in 1996 to connect every school and library in the nation to the Internet. Today, it remains the federal government\u2019s largest source of funding for technology in education. Administered through the Universal Service Fund, E-rate provides vital funding to school districts across the country based on the poverty level of the population and the local cost of telecommunications and Internet services. During the 2012-13 school year, $42.38 million in E-rate funds were committed to schools and libraries in Washington state.\nA PDF copy of the signed letter is available HERE. The full text of the letter is below:\n\u00a0\nFederal Communications Commission\n445 12th Street, SW\nWashington, DC 20554\n\u00a0\nDear Chairman Wheeler, Commissioner Clyburn, Commissioner O\u2019Rielly, Commissioner Rosenworcel, and Commissioner Pai:\nAs Members of Congress concerned with improving our education system and preparing students for the jobs of the future, we are writing to urge swift action to improve and modernize the E-rate program in order to help connect our nation\u2019s schools with high-speed broadband over the next five years. This critical update will ensure every school has the ability to accelerate next-generation education reforms, support teachers, and enhance student learning. We believe this is an important step we can take to provide our children with high-quality digital learning opportunities in order to improve student outcomes and prepare them to succeed in a 21st century economy.\u00a0\nImproving our children\u2019s ability to take advantage of learning technologies has always been a bipartisan endeavor, as has been the E-rate program itself. We are proud to support the bipartisan recommendations to update E-rate and we call for those across the education, government, and business communities to recognize the opportunity we have to improve and modernize our schools. Therefore, we ask the Commission for swift action to bring high-speed broadband to our students on an expedited basis.\nClosing the education gap means ensuring that our schools and libraries have access to digital learning opportunities that require high-speed broadband. However, too many of our children are currently trying to learn skills for tomorrow with outdated infrastructure from the past. While the E-rate program was enormously successful in bringing basic telephone and broadband to schools and classrooms, the connectivity provided is no longer sufficient. The average American school has about the same bandwidth as the average American home, but with 200 times as many users. Therefore, 72% of our schools do not have the Internet infrastructure they need to take advantage of digital learning opportunities today, and fewer than 1% have the infrastructure they will need in the future.\nIn an age when high-speed broadband is transforming almost every aspect of our lives, we must extend digital opportunities to every classroom. This is particularly crucial in rural areas, where students are less likely to have the speeds and infrastructure they need to take advantage of new technologies and high-quality educational content. Forty million of our nation\u2019s students\u2014the next generation of talent in the United States\u2014are being left behind without the speeds they need to succeed. As Commissioner Ajit Pai has noted, \u201cToday, too many kids walk off the school bus, only to walk decades into the past. This is unacceptable. \u2026 Parents are right to expect that schools will help prepare their children for the America of tomorrow, and they know that can\u2019t happen in the classroom of yesterday.\u201d\nExperts agree that to enable students to take full advantage of digital learning, America\u2019s schools should aim for 100 Mbps of bandwidth or more for every 1,000 students and staff members today, and 1 Gbps by 2017. In today\u2019s global economy, these high speeds aren\u2019t just an educational imperative, but a competitive necessity. Test results released this month show that American students still lag far behind countries like China, South Korea, Japan, Switzerland, and the Netherlands in math, reading, and science. It\u2019s no longer enough just to compete for jobs; we have to compete for higher educational outcomes enabled by higher broadband speeds.\nThis means we need to: (1) Focus E-rate on broadband connectivity and infrastructure to ensure that we maximize the impact of the program on learning by limiting support for yesterday\u2019s outdated dial-up era technologies; (2) Create an upgrade fund within the E-rate program to connect every school and library, particularly those in rural areas, to high-speed broadband; (3) Increase transparency and accountability for the program in order to reduce costs, research effective practices, and ensure that all students have access to the connectivity they need; and (4) Simplify and streamline onerous paperwork requirements to improve program efficiency. These reforms will make possible strategic investments to deploy high-speed broadband to schools and classrooms across the country.\nWe simply cannot prepare our kids to compete for 21st century jobs by leaving them stranded with age-old technologies. Therefore, we ask you to support swift action to modernize and expand the E-rate program to bring transformative learning opportunities to every school in America.\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140223220039/http://delbene.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congresswoman-delbene-leads-bipartisan-letter-to-fcc-chairman-wheeler"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5567028895020485, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}