The post-State of the Union punditry often focuses on what the President said — and what he plans to do. We hear a lot less about what he didn’t say, and hardly anything at all about what was promised in previous speeches that never came to pass.
In this year’s speech, we heard about the progress we’ve made in providing greater access to education and technology in the 21st century. “We gave our citizens schools and colleges, infrastructure and the internet – tools they needed to go as far as their effort will take them,” Obama declared. What he failed to mention, however, was the fate of his past proposals for how to equip students and teachers with the resources and skills needed to actually take advantage of those tools.
So, what kind of progress have we actually made since the president’s last annual address? The answer, it turns out, is decidedly mixed.
In addition to setting targets for high-speed broadband, ConnectED brought private partners on board to provide additional hardware and software into schools, and committed to support teachers in professional learning to better implement technology in the classroom.
In last year’s State of the Union, President Obama placed a heavy emphasis on technology and innovation, touting the importance of connecting schools and libraries to high-speed Internet. Among other things, he emphasized his promise to “connect 99 percent of our students to high-speed broadband over the next four years,” a reference to a 2013 White House initiative called ConnectED, which the Administration launched to help bring American students into the digital age. In addition to setting targets for high-speed broadband, ConnectED brought private partners on board to provide additional hardware and software into schools, and committed to support teachers in professional learning to better implement technology in the classroom. Taken together, these three components - increased connectivity, private partnerships, and technological professionalization - would “enrich K-12 education for every student in America.”
In the past year, the federal government has made tremendous strides toward fulfilling the first part of Obama’s ConnectED pledge: bringing high-speed Internet connectivity to every classroom and every library in the country. This has been achieved primarily through reforms to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) program called E-rate, which subsidizes communications services for schools and libraries as part of the Universal Service Fund. The FCC successfully carried out two phases of E-rate reform in 2014: an initial order in July focused on improving Wi-Fi connectivity in schools and libraries, and a second order in December that tackles the underlying connectivity challenges and expands funding for the program.
Today, the modernized E-rate program stands on strong footing. The program has been revamped to focus on high-speed Internet connectivity, phasing out support for outdated services and putting aside $5 billion over the next five years to help close the wireless connectivity gap in schools and libraries. And with an additional $1.5 billion available annually on a permanent basis (which significantly increases the program size from $2.4 to $3.9 billion) schools and libraries will have the ability to invest in long-term, scalable bandwidth solutions like fiber optic infrastructure. With better rules and more funding, these changes should substantially help schools and libraries to meet the connectivity challenges of today and tomorrow.
But what happened to the rest of President Obama’s initiative? Where is the “ED” in ConnectED today?
When it comes to the private partners, the answer is that no one really knows. In the 2014 State of the Union, President Obama stated that “with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, we’ve got a down payment to start connecting more than 15,000 schools and 20 million students over the next two years, without adding a dime to the deficit.” A few days later, he unveiled a new private sector initiative that promised to provide hardware, software, and technical expertise to schools across the country. Seven big tech companies pledged $750 million in “in-kind” donations, agreeing to contribute a variety of free or discounted hardware, software, and services to students and teachers across the country. We haven’t heard much since, although the White House’s ConnectED resource page now touts over $2 billion in commitments and has added a handful of new companies to the list. But this week’s speech offered no firm follow-up, and, as the Washington Post pointed out last year, while the private sector commitments are a good first step, they actually don’t add up to all that much when you consider the gaping needs of students across the country.
What good are technological tools without the dedicated funding to support teachers’ efforts to learn how to use them effectively?
And what about teacher professional development for technology? A few weeks after last year’s State of the Union, the President announced that a new ConnectEDucators Program, designed to deliver on the promise of 21st century teacher preparation, would be included in his fiscal 2015 Budget Proposal. When Congress failed to pass a budget in October, however, the program hit a dead end. To address the lack of funding for helping teachers integrate technology into their practice, the Department of Education issued guidance to states and districts instead. Through a Dear Colleague Letter in November 2014, the Department clarified how schools could use education funds from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to “support the use of technology to improve instruction and student outcomes.” But without Congressional action, no additional dollars will be allocated for this important dimension of the ConnectED Initiative. What good are technological tools without the dedicated funding to support teachers’ efforts to learn how to use them effectively?
Investing in high-speed Internet infrastructure is a critical first step to enable 21st century learning, but it is hardly sufficient on its own. The next steps involve putting the right hardware and software in classrooms across the nation and providing teachers with the professional learning opportunities they need to integrate new technologies into their instructional practice. The President made a brief reference in this week’s State of the Union to extending the Internet’s reach “to every classroom,” but he said little about the other critical components that need to be put in place. We need to keep talking about the work that remains unfinished.
