Google Fiber could revolutionise students’ broadband access
Up to 5m US households with school-age children lack broadband in the home creating a "homework gap," and more than 75% of school district technology leaders have no strategy for addressing off-campus access, according to the Consortium of School Networking. However, Google Fiber is tacking the gap in some cities like Kansas City, Sat Lake City and Austin with three programmes: ConnectHome provides free home internet services to low-income housing projects; Community Leaders Programme recruits college students to give free digital literacy training to small businesses and individual learners; and Create Your World (CYW) is a free interactive coding and Internet workshop.
Dive Brief:

The Consortium of School Networking reports 5 million households with school-age children still don't have broadband access at home, and three new Google Fiber programs aim to change that.

Currently, Google Fiber is available in Kansas City, MO; Salt Lake City; and Austin, offering data packages to home subscribers. Three new programs called ConnectHome, the Community Leaders Program (CLP) and the Create Your World (CYW) program may potentially help K-12 schools.

ConnectHome would bring free internet access to public housing projects, CLP offers free digital literacy training to small businesses and individual learners and CYW is a free interactive workshop to engage young people in coding and the Internet.

Dive Insight:

Inner-city and rural schools particularly stand to gain from the new Google Fiber programs, especially if they can be used in conjunction with initiatives like the FCC's E-rate program. Subsidies from that program can help districts defray substantial costs associated with increasing internet connectivity and instating modern hardware in school buildings.

Last year, E-rate funding requests totaled $3.9 billion, and this year they're estimated to be around $5.8 billion. The E-Rate program supports President Barack Obama's ConnectED initiative, which aims to provide high-speed Internet access to 99% of classrooms by 2018. Yet connectivity remains evasive for some school systems. Some cities and states have struggled with E-Rate fraud.

For schools lacking fiber or broadband connections, satellite connections can also help. This option can help bring connectivity to disadvantaged rural areas, where setting up the infrastructure needed by large telecom providers may prove prohibitively expensive. According to the Consortium for School Networking's (CoSN) third annual "E-rate and Infrastructure" report, which surveyed 531 district and tech officials, 25% of respondents said that "none of their schools currently meets the FCC's short-term goal" for connectivity.