Tech, Telecom Companies to Donate More Than Half a Billion Dollars to High-Tech Education Efforts

"Your education is the very best investment that all of us can make in America,” Obama told the students. He highlighted the donations pledged by “some of America’s biggest tech companies": AT&T will donate $100 million in wireless service to middle-school students, “so they can continue to do homework when they get home,” Obama said. Sprint will provide free wireless service for up to 50,000 low-income high school students; Apple will donate $100 million worth of iPads, MacBooks and other products; and software companies will provide free or significantly reduced price copies of their applications. Because “no technology will ever be as important as a great teacher,” Verizon will expand a program to help train educators to use new technologies, Obama said. “Later this year, I'm going to ask Congress to do its part and give teachers using cutting-edge technologies the training they deserve.”

"The most important investment we can make to drive long-term prosperity for our country is finding smart new ways to make technology work for schools, teachers and students,” said Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president, in a statement. AT&T’s contributions, planned over the next three years, are “contingent on FCC e-rate compliance requirements, and federal, state, and municipal procurement frameworks that will not prohibit or extend these types of initiatives,” said a company spokesman.

Sprint’s is a four-year commitment to provide wireless broadband to low-income students. “This initiative will build on the efforts of today’s most innovative tech companies to help make our nation’s children better students, problem solvers, creative thinkers, and future leaders, while also training teachers to effectively use mobile technologies to improve student outcomes and prepare them for a competitive workforce,” CEO Dan Hesse said in a statement. Verizon, through its Verizon Foundation, will invest $100 million in “cash and in-kind contributions” over the next three years to “accelerate professional development for teachers on how to effectively use technology to boost student achievement,” a spokesman said.

Obama gave a shout out to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, commending him for the agency’s announcement it would provide $2 billion to connect more than 15,000 schools and 20 million students to high-speed broadband over the next two years (CD Feb 4 p7). “It won’t require a single piece of legislation from Congress,” Obama said. “It won’t add a single dime to the deficit.”

At least $1 billion of that promised funding will come from rolled-over or newly uncommitted funds from prior years, an FCC official told us. Every year, schools and libraries submit requests for E-rate funding and receive a letter of commitment from the program pledging payment once invoices for requested, eligible services are submitted. But for a variety of reasons, invoices are sometimes for less than the schools and libraries originally anticipated, the official said. Those funds return to the pool of E-rate funds available for other projects. The agency has been looking for ways to allocate those funds for other projects more quickly, the official said: That’s a major source of funding. The agency also hopes to squeeze more funding out of its pending restructuring of the E-rate program, he said.

"Getting groundbreaking and innovative technologies to students across the country is a mission we all share, but we must do so in a cost effective and fiscally responsible manner,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., in a joint statement Tuesday. “We look forward to getting additional details from Chairman Wheeler tomorrow and hope to see the administration’s proposal referred to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service where it will benefit from the board’s significant analysis and expertise. By following an open and transparent process, we can all work together to ensure that children across the country have access to the tools they need to succeed in the information age without reliving the mistakes made with the broadband stimulus programs."

"I am encouraged that the President is not waiting for the Congress to act and has taken steps on his own to pursue his goal of connecting 99 percent of American students within the next five years,” said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., in a statement. “However, as President Obama has himself made clear, in order for our country to undertake the serious investment in education, skills training, and job creation we need, Congress will have to be a partner in this work -- not an obstacle.” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the House author of the original E-rate program, said: “Speed, not access, is the 21st century imperative for broadband connections in schools and libraries, and ConnectED will help accelerate the speeds needed to close the digital literacy gap for our students. E-Rate ensured all kids had access to the Internet, and now we must maintain our technological edge in education through faster connections to accommodate today’s Internet offerings.”