This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and 开云体育.
With the aid of federal funds, the Central Vermont Supervisory Union is busy giving its school buses an upgrade: equipping them with Wi-Fi, so students can turn long, idle drives into time to do homework.
Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, along with U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., toured one soon-to-be minted Wi-Fi school bus at the Williamstown Middle and High School on Tuesday.
Meeting with a group of staff and students, Rosenworcel and Welch touted the supervisory union鈥檚 initiative to build out Wi-Fi capabilities on buses as a model for others nationwide 鈥� and one of particular urgency for rural areas where connectivity is sparse. Both hope to soon create a path for more schools to follow CVSU鈥檚 lead.
鈥淲e understand that there are students who don鈥檛 have internet access at home 鈥� and a lot of those kids are in rural America,鈥� Rosenworcel said. 鈥淎nd in rural America, kids spend an awful lot of time on school buses. So we can turn that ride time into connected time for homework.鈥�
Central Vermont Supervisory Union used funds from the FCC鈥檚 Emergency Connectivity Fund 鈥� a COVID-19 era program intended to provide schools with tools to shift to remote learning 鈥� to jumpstart its Wi-Fi on school buses effort, said Trey Cates, technology director for the supervisory union. Supply chain issues have delayed the implementation, but Cates said the supervisory union hopes to have the Wi-Fi routers installed by the end of the month.
That pandemic-era program will sunset in June 2024. But Rosenworcel hopes to open up a new route for more schools to equip buses with Wi-Fi. The currently funds connectivity services for schools and libraries 鈥� but doesn鈥檛 consider Wi-Fi on buses an 鈥渆ducational purpose鈥� for students, barring it from funding.
Rosenworcel hopes to expand the E-Rate program鈥檚 reach to buses. The FCC will consider the matter at .
Welch supports the change, too. 鈥淚t's going to make it affordable for communities that want to enable high-speed internet to be on the buses,鈥� he said.
Students and staff at Williamstown said the Wi-Fi buildout on buses will particularly help students who struggle to access the internet at home.
A history teacher, who noticed students鈥� varying abilities to connect to the internet at home during the pandemic, said the Wi-Fi bus buildout could be 鈥渞evolutionary.鈥� A school librarian described an advisee who printed off web pages before leaving school so she could read them at home 鈥� who might now have extra time to finish homework on the bus. And a high school junior said the initiative could be especially important for peers who lost their homes 鈥� and their internet access 鈥� following this summer鈥檚 floods.
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