FCC E-Rate Inquiry to Ask About Reducing Funding, Expanding School Internet Filters
The agency’s proposal on local permitting shot clocks would ask about extending them to 'commingled' telecom and broadband infrastructure.
WASHINGTON, June 5, 2026 – The public draft of a Federal Communications Commission inquiry into its $2.5 billion-per-year broadband subsidy for schools and libraries would ask commenters whether or not the program should see its funding reduced or sunset.
The program was set up in 1996 to address a lack of internet access in education centers, and the draft noted that in the decades since, most schools report having broadband and infrastructure has expanded widely.
