A Millcreek Township School District bus is shown after school on May 25, 2023.

It could soon be harder for students to access the internet on school buses and for the public to borrow mobile internet hotspots from libraries.

In a Sept. 23 letter, a coalition of school and library advocacy groups urged the Federal Communications Commission to protect the programs that have allowed schools and libraries to lend out hotspot devices.

"One in five households in our country still do not have access to reliable home broadband. Hotspots are not a permanent fix, but they'll make sure students, jobseekers, veterans and seniors don't get left behind," American Library Association President Sam Helmick said in a statement provided to USA TODAY.

The FCC is scheduled to vote at its Sept. 30 meeting to undo a 2024 rule change made by the Biden administration that allowed schools and libraries to lend out hotspots and provide Wi-Fi on buses as part of the existing E-Rate program, which allows schools and libraries to obtain affordable broadband.

When schools and businesses were closed during the pandemic, Congress allocated $123 million to the FCC to purchase hotspots for schools and libraries. The Biden FCC vote in 2024 came after authority to spend that money ended.

Schools and libraries in every state have already had contracts approved and money has already been spent. In fiscal year 2025, which ends Sept. 30, schools and districts requested a total of $27.5 million for Wi-Fi hotspots.

According to a Sept. 3 FCC news release, the company that runs the program, called E-Rate, would be ordered to "deny pending funding year 2025 requests for E-Rate funding for the off-premises use of Wi-Fi hotspots and Wi-Fi on school buses as these services will be determined to be ineligible."

An FCC spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Too much unsupervised internet access?

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement that the FCC's authority to fund the Wi-Fi initiatives had ended by the time the Biden FCC voted. He said the E-Rate wasn't meant to provide children with unsupervised access to the internet.

"The FCC also failed to demonstrate that these funding decisions would advance legitimate classroom or library purposes. I dissented from both decisions at the time, and I am now pleased to circulate these two items, which will end the FCC’s illegal funding unsupervised screen time for young kids," Carr said.

Republicans in the Senate and House introduced measures to overturn the Biden rule earlier this year, also calling it partisan overreach because federal law states that the E-Rate program is meant to provide discounts for broadband services only to "school classrooms" and libraries.

In May, the Senate voted 50-38 along party lines to overturn the 2024 expansion. A similar bill introduced in the House in February has not been considered.

Many don't have access for homework, telemedicine, online banking, etc.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, the American Library Association (ALA), EdLiNC and the Homework Gap Coalition signed onto the joint letter to the FCC.

"Lack of access to home broadband is a daily problem for students trying to succeed in school, people looking for jobs, rural residents relying on telehealth, and for Americans without digital skills to file their taxes and set up online banking," Helmick said in the statement. "Policymakers should welcome the eagerness of local libraries and schools to be part of the solution."

The letter provides examples of school districts in rural areas with lengthy bus commutes, such as Farmington Municipal Schools in New Mexico, that have put Wi-Fi on buses so students can complete homework on their up to two-hour ride home.

The letter also stresses that both of programs are already subject to E-Rate’s filtering requirements in accordance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), ensuring that users do not have unfettered access to obscene or harmful material.

It also notes that allowing the program to cover lending hotspots and extending Wi-Fi to school buses fits alongside other modifications made to the E-Rate program that aren't explicitly allowed under the federal law, such as supporting internet access in administrative offices, parking lots and library bookmobiles.

Sarah D. Wire covers how real people are affected by the federal government for USA TODAY. She can be reached at swire@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FCC plans end to school bus internet and library hotspot lending

Reporting by Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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