School Bus Wi-Fi Authorization ‘Well Within’ FCC's Authority, Says Coalition

Education in 2024 “bears very little resemblance to education in previous decades,” and advances in technology have “transformed the pattern of classwork and homework,” said the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition in a 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court amicus brief Tuesday (docket 23-60641). The brief backs the FCC’s Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040).

The coalition’s unopposed Jan. 19 motion sought leave to intervene on the FCC’s behalf in the challenge petitioners Maurine and Matthew Molak brought to defeat the school bus Wi-Fi declaratory ruling, partly on grounds that the ruling exceeded the FCC's authority (see 2401200001). The 5th Circuit granted the coalition's motion to intervene five days later (see 2401250002).

Homework “no longer means cracking open a textbook and completing a written handout,” said the coalition. Students instead “are instructed to access reading assignments on web-based learning platforms, to watch online video presentations, and to complete and submit interactive homework assignments online,” it said.

Some of those “technological shifts in education” were underway before the COVID-19 pandemic, said the brief. But COVID spurred an acceleration in internet-based education, which "has remained," the brief said.

Basic “facility” with those kinds of technologies “is an essential part of students’ preparation for adult life and participation in the workforce,” said the coalition. But broadband access “remains out of reach for millions of Americans,” and that lack of access “is especially acute in rural areas and among lower-income communities,” it said. Even students with sufficient home connectivity “often face long daily bus rides to and from school, in addition to long rides to and from athletic and other school activities,” it said.

Congress charged the FCC under the Telecommunications Act “with preserving and advancing universal service,” said the coalition. Even in 1996, Congress recognized that communications technologies “would inevitably evolve and advance over time,” including those that were essential to education, it said.

The FCC’s declaratory ruling at issue here “recognized what is practically indisputable,” said the coalition. Enabling schools to add Wi-Fi capabilities to school buses is “one significant way of bridging the homework gap” through the E-rate program, it said. The ruling allows students on long bus rides home from school, or to and from school activities, to meaningfully engage in learning in the “modern age,” it said.

The Molak petitioners didn’t participate in the agency proceeding that led to the declaratory ruling, said the coalition. For the first time on appeal, they characterize the declaratory ruling as an “unprecedented expansion” of the E-rate program, triggered by the imminent June 30 expiration of another funding source, it said.

To the contrary, the coalition and other E-rate supporters have explained for years, in this proceeding, that the FCC’s statutory authority and agency precedent support the inclusion of school-bus Wi-Fi access in the E-rate program, said the amicus brief. The FCC’s declaratory ruling “was well within its authority,” and the 5th Circuit should reject the Molaks’ challenge, it said.