Giving Compass' Take:

• The FCC has the potential to help the country move forward during the coronavirus. Here are five ways that this organization can help support America's learners.  

• How can collaborative efforts invigorate solutions for education during coronavirus? 

• Read about pursuing educational equity during COVID-19. 

The FCC has the authority right now to extend the reach of broadband and close the Homework Gap so we connect millions of children who desperately need to get online for school. We have the authority right now to track network outages so when gaps in capacity exist, we can manage them.

It’s a tall order. But here are five ideas about what the FCC can do, right now, to keep us as a country moving forward.

  • Study and Share: As more Americans are told to stay home, the FCC should study how broadband networks are faring under the stress of more intensive use and publish these findings daily.
  • Protect Telecom Workers: The FCC should advocate for keeping our telecommunications workforce safe. The Department of Homeland Security correctly listed telecommunications workers as essential during the coronavirus response.
  • Extend Deadlines: The FCC should extend any upcoming and non-essential deadlines so that everyone can focus on what matters most right now—responding to this crisis.
  • Kill Data Caps and Overage Fees: The FCC should work with providers to eliminate data caps and overage fees. With Americans working from home, taking classes, videoconferencing, playing games, chatting with friends, and streaming movies, we must rethink how we count bandwidth and data usage.
  • Use Universal Service Powers: We should use all of our universal service powers to meet this crisis head on.  The FCC has rightly extended some deadlines for its E-Rate and rural healthcare programs, made certain the amount of rural health care funding available for the current funding year and relaxed its gift rules.

Read the full article about how the FCC can support our learners by Jessica Rosenworcel at EdSurge.