To compete in our digital world, students needs access to high-speed Internet, but as this latest report from Education SuperHighway shows, how state governments are progressing with the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to get every school district to speeds of at least 100 kbps per student goes from excellent, to good, to not very great at all.
Washington ranks No. 15 when it comes to the number of school districts that are adequately connected. We landed in the second percentile group, with 88 percent of Washington school districts reporting that they’ve met this goal.
That’s like a B+, right?
Still, that leaves 12 percent of districts — and kids, about one in 10 students — who don’t have proper access to Internet speeds while at school.
See more Washington stats from the report below:
On a national scale, they report that 20 million more students have been connected to the FCC’s speed goal over the past two years. Only 30 percent of kids were adequately connected in 2013, 77 percent of students nationwide enjoy these speeds now.
Unfortunately, that means 21 million students are left with inadequate connectivity speeds in the U.S.
What’s the hold up? Education SuperHighway found that three main factors impact the ability for a district to connect: Access to fiber, affordability and insufficient school budgets.
They add that 38 governors, including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, have committed to the project.
“In 2014, the FCC made the resources available to close the connectivity gap by increasing its investment in K-12 broadband by $2.5 billion per year to a total of $3.9 billion annually,” Education SuperHighway reports. “As a result, there is now sufficient funding in place to connect every public school classroom in America to high-speed broadband. States have a three-year window to finish the work the FCC has begun.”
See how the states rank up in the top 15 below:
