The mounting number of school closures amid the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. have begun to expose major gaps between urban and rural students in terms of access to technology and the internet. Geoffrey Starks, an Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner, emphasized during a Tuesday Senate Appropriations hearing the important role the FCC could play in stemming the coronavirus outbreaks and keeping communities forced to quarantine connected to the outside world. Some examples of things the FCC could do include lending hotspots to schools and libraries, setting up mobile hotspots in low-income neighborhoods and establishing temporary access to FCC's Lifeline Program, which provides low-income families with telephone service. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), sent a letter last week to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asking him to deploy these emergency resources to allow for temporary connectivity, especially in low-income communities where internet access is harder to come by.
