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In October 2026, the Alliance for Learning Innovation submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on its proposed rule, “Review E-Rate Program To Ensure Congress’s Vision.” The comments emphasize that affordable school connectivity is foundational infrastructure for instruction, school operations, accessibility, family communication, and the education research and development (R&D) needed to determine what works for students. To that end, ALI recommends that the Commission:
- Preserve E-Rate as a nationwide, need-based program for affordable connectivity to and within schools and libraries, without sunsetting the program or excluding Head Start and prekindergarten providers;
- Avoid equating school connectivity with student screen time, recognizing that many educational and institutional functions, including education R&D, depend on reliable internet access;
- Reject conditioning E-Rate funding on screen time limits or other education policy conditions unrelated to the program’s communications mission;
- Retain CIPA’s current focus on computers owned or controlled by schools and libraries, rather than extending filtering requirements to privately owned devices; and
- Distinguish CIPA’s content protections from screen-time limits, and pursue program integrity through targeted, proportionate measures.
ALI conducts advocacy work thanks to financial support from the Walton Education Coalition (WEC).