(Editor’s note: Now in its fourth year, the 12 Days of Broadband runs Dec. 4 through Dec. 19 highlighting a dozen innovations directly impacted by the expanding reach of high-speed connectivity this year in North Carolina and throughout the country.)

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Where it once was revolutionary to connect a computer lab down the hall to the Internet, harnessing the full value of digital learning today means enabling all students to go online from their desk or from any library workspace.

E-Rate, established in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, directs U.S. service providers to contribute to the Universal Service Fund in the form of fees to subsidize the deployment of broadband infrastructure to American schools and libraries. During the past 18 years, E-Rate has been vital in helping transform access to modern communications networks for schools and libraries.

To date, the program represents the federal government’s largest education technology program. And, while the program has been an overwhelming success, technology has changed significantly since its inception.

Funded by fees Americans pay on their monthly phone bills, E-Rate has helped connect most U.S. classrooms and public libraries to the Internet, but rules have limited how much money could fund broadband and Wi-Fi.

When Congress initially passed the Telecommunications Act, according to Federal Communication Commission (FCC) figures, only 14 percent of classrooms had Internet and most schools with Internet access (74 percent) used dial-up Internet access. By 2005, the E-Rate program had successfully connected 94 percent of U.S. classrooms to the Internet, and by 2006, nearly all public libraries were connected to the Internet (98 percent).

Preparing America’s students with the skills they need to get good jobs and compete with countries around the world relies increasingly on interactive, individualized learning experiences driven by new technology. President Barack Obama drove this message home last year while speaking at Mooresville Middle School when he unveiled the ConnectED plan.

ConnectED calls on the FCC to take the steps necessary to build high-speed digital connections to America’s schools and libraries, ensuring that 99 percent of American students can benefit from these advances in teaching and learning. The president further directed the federal government to make better use of existing funds to get this technology into classrooms, and into the hands of teachers trained on its advantages.

“Since that time, the FCC has taken steps to modernize the E-Rate program to support high-speed connectivity for America’s schools and libraries,” a White House spokesperson said in November, citing the FCC’s action in February of this year to begin the expansion a “$2 billion down payment” on the president’s ConnectED goals.

Last month, the FCC proposed a more direct way to boost funding to E-Rate.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said last month that he wanted a 62 percent, or $1.5 billion, increase on the cap that the agency could spend to bring Internet to schools (from $2.4 billion to $3.9 billion).

The White House called the FCC proposal to raise the E-Rate cap an “essential step” for ConnectED.

There’s a cost to the FCC’s proposal, of course; consumers and businesses could pay up to an additional 16 cents per phone line per month as part of the Universal Service Fund fee on their phone bills. That cost currently is a monthly fee of 99 cents for each phone line.

The FCC adopted an order in July to make the program more efficient and transparent so that schools get the most “bang for their E-Rate buck.” At the same time, the FCC also moved to close the Wi-Fi gap by targeting $1 billion annually to expand Wi-Fi connections in all the nation’s schools and libraries to support modern digital learning.

In North Carolina, a ratified House Bill 44 now requires a digital learning transition in the state that is built around supporting personalized learning for all students. That transition will demand a robust network infrastructure down to the classroom level in every public school.

Phil Emer, Director of Technology Planning and Policy at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation in Raleigh, explained just before an FCC workshop on E-Rate in May that the North Carolina School Connectivity Initiative (SCI) brought high-bandwidth connectivity to all public schools in the state and now significant emphasis needs to be on supporting that network infrastructure as well as access inside the schools.

“We have built a model through the SCI that applies rigorous planning, engineering support, and consortium buying to school Internet access.” Emer said in May. “We are eager to apply that model in North Carolina to expanding the SCI to the classroom and individual user level. We believe that our approach, if applied more broadly nationally, could play an important role in a modernized and more efficient E-Rate program.”

In a March letter that stated students at every U.S. school should have access to Internet speeds of 100 Mbps right now, and 1 Gbps by 2017, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) urged the Obama administration to bring high-speed Internet to more schools and libraries. They also called for each classroom to have Wi-Fi connectivity.

At the time, the USCM joined a growing number of lawmakers and business executives calling for changes in E-Rate.

In January, dozens of CEOs wrote a letter to the FCC requesting an overhaul of E-Rate to make sure more students have access to the Internet in their schools and libraries. A group of 25 additional lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, also wrote requesting the FCC to expand E-Rate to include more schools and libraries as quickly as possible.

According to EducationSuperHighway, 63 percent of schools in the United States currently lack the proper Internet infrastructure to support digital learning. The Wireline Competition Bureau and Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis released an E-Rate Data Update in November summarizing the information the FCC had received since issuing its E-Rate Modernization Order during the summer.

This fact sheet also provides a succinct description of the Internet connectivity gaps and Chairman Wheeler’s latest proposal to adjust the spending cap to a level that will enable long-term E-Rate connectivity targets to be met. The order the chairman circulated a couple weeks ago also proposes a series of targeted rule changes designed to ensure students and life-long learners can get the 21st century education required today to keep the nation globally competitive.

A vote on this latest proposal is expected by the commission on Dec. 11, which would close out a very active year for the modernization of E-Rate.