The federal government has ended some broadband subsidies for schools and libraries.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Novosafo.

The Federal Communications Commission has ended a Biden-era program that subsidized Wi-Fi on school buses and allowed libraries to lend out hotspot devices.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said those initiatives were unlawful because they went beyond what Congress had authorized his agency to subsidize.

Now, those funds are permanently rescinded, and to be

clear, this is not related to the shutdown. Nicole Turner Lee, author of the book Digitally Invisible,

told us that change could hurt low-income and rural communities. So a couple of years ago, former FCC

chairwoman Jessica Rosen-Warsall, who was also responsible for coining this term the homework gap,

thought it was important to ensure that young people on their way to school, whether through the buses or at the library,

had access to a more expanded E-rate program.

So a program that started with just basic connectivity within these institutions was given the

authority to actually go outside of the institutions. And the homework gap for former chairwoman

Rosemoisle was about giving people access, particularly students, who lacked the ability to finish

research assignments or complete basic assignments

designated from the school. So this was something that leaned into the fact that there was not

this mobile solution for young people who could not get access at home and more specifically,

could not benefit from the access that was within the schools

outside of the school day.

The American Library Association, you know, they really opposed this change, this kind of

reversal of the expansion of the broadband program.

And they just didn't even talk about just students.

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