The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) today released key preliminary findings from a national survey of nearly 450 K-12 district technology leaders from 44 states on E-Rate and broadband. The survey found that 99 percent of districts need greater Internet bandwidth and connectivity within the next 36 months, and more than nine in 10 districts think the current E-Rate program inadequately meets their district’s needs. The survey is being conducted in partnership with Market Data Research and will remain open through September.
Key findings:
•Ninety-nine percent of districts need additional Internet bandwidth and connectivity in the next 36 months.
•Nearly 93 percent of districts believe current E-Rate funding does not fully meet their district’s needs.
•The two biggest barriers for schools are ongoing monthly costs and cost of capital or upfront / nonrecurring expenses.
•Twenty percent of districts identified geography as a barrier to increasing connectivity in their schools, and 11 percent indicated their Internet providers were either at capacity or could not expand capacity.
The complete survey results will be released later this fall. To learn more, visit www.cosn.org/BroadbandTools.
