By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -The chair of the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday proposed ending subsidies for wireless use on school buses after they were initially created under a COVID-era program.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr asked the commission to reverse policies adopted under then-President Joe Biden to allow subsidies for WiFi use on school buses and for wireless hotspots that could be checked out of libraries for online access. Carr said the proposal “will end the FCC’s illegal funding unsupervised screen time for young kids.”
Carr said the FCC also “failed to demonstrate that these funding decisions would advance legitimate classroom or library purposes.”
The U.S. Senate in May voted under the Congressional Review Act to repeal the FCC school bus internet and hot spot subsidies. Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz said the rule did not require schools to obtain parental consent before distributing subsidized hotspots or establish meaningful filtering requirements. The House has not take up the measure.
Then FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in approving the program it would help school kids get homework done on bus trips.
She noted in some rural areas kids spend an hour or more on the bus to get to and from school or athletic events, and kids without access to internet at home struggle to get nightly assignments completed. “This is smart, creative, and consistent with the statute,” Rosenworcel said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Leslie Adler)
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