E-Rate needs an upgrade to boost schools, libraries
The federal E-Rate program, which helps schools and libraries pay for Internet service, has been a rousing success. Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., says that 92 percent of the nation’s classrooms have Internet service, up from 14 percent in 1996, when the program started.
But new technology calls for a huge upgrade in the program to improve connection speeds necessary to accommodate today’s programs and services.
Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has called for E-Rate 2.0. As he said, “basic Internet connectivity is not sufficient to meet our 21st century educational needs.”
The senator wants to create one-gigabit connections to every school in America. That is indeed a lofty goal. It would transform the Internet experience with speeds 60 to 100 times faster than most schools or homes now receive. He also wants wireless connections in every school building.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
View all posts by Michael Sauers
