Greitens' plan seeks to improve internet at rural schools

Gov. Eric Greitens announced earlier this month a proposal to expand high-speed internet access to rural Missouri schools. It's an effort local districts are certainly hoping comes together.

Access to high-speed broadband would mean "being able to take our district to another level," said Chuck Woody, superintendent of the Osage County R-3 (Fatima) district in Westphalia.

He noted, as an example of the district's current limitations, staff have to be careful how much they use the internet during online state testing, as they worry about overloading the system's capacity. He called that "a big concern right off the bat." Despite that, "once you stream (the state testing) through, it's not pulling as much broadband service."

Given the limited capacity, he also shared worries about implementation of the district's one-to-one classroom technology initiative to provide students with electronic devices.

"Are we able to do that? Or are we purchasing these materials, but we don't have the internet abilities to put them to use?" he wondered.

"Currently, more than 100 Missouri school districts do not have access to quality internet because of a lack of infrastructure," Greitens said in a news release.

He wants to change that with a strategic investment that "will allow those districts to bring quality broadband internet to their schools via fiberoptic connections. By working with the House and Senate to appropriate $6 million in this year's budget, Gov. Greitens will unlock $39 million in matching federal E-rate (program) funds for these schools."

Logan Spena, Greitens' deputy policy director, said the $6 million from the state's budget will be appropriated from general revenue to the state's school broadband fund, then be will administered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

The program will reimburse schools for newly constructed connections to high-speed fiberoptic lines.

"These schools will be able to fund that essential infrastructure without spending a single dollar from their local budgets," Greitens' news release stated.

The other $39 million in funding is planned to come from the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Schools and Libraries Program, also known as the E-rate program.

The E-rate program subsidizes costs for schools and libraries for access to external sources of internet connection and internal connections within and between buildings. Schools can receive reimbursements from 20-90 percent of the cost of their internet connectivity services.

The level of the discount is based on the number of a district's students eligible for free and reduced priced lunches (a measure of the level of poverty in a district) and whether a school is located in an urban or rural area, said Dawn Thurnau. Thurnau is the marketing and product development manager for the nonprofit Missouri Research and Education Network, or MOREnet, which provides fiberoptic internet connectivity to 414 public, private and parochial school districts in the state.

She explained E-rate's recently created state matching provision increases the discount a school is eligible for by up to 10 percent for equivalent funds from the state. This discount applies only to costs for new connections to fiber internet networks and was created in 2014.

For example, Osage R-3's base discount rate from the federal government for construction costs to connect is 60 percent. With the state matching provision, the federal government would chip in another 10 percent reimbursement of costs, meaning Missouri would be left with 30 percent of the overall construction costs for that district, if school districts are not to spend any money out of their own budgets, per Greitens' statement.

Thurnau also reported the Osage County R-1 (Chamois) district has a base discount rate of 80 percent; Jamestown C-1, 70 percent; and Prairie Home R-5, 70 percent. These four districts are among those listed on the website of another nonprofit partner in Greitens' initiative, which means they're specifically on the radar for investments by the state in their internet connectivity infrastructure.

The nonprofit Education Superhighway is working with governors in 20 states to provide technical and procurement support for expanded internet connectivity, according to its website. The San Francisco, California-based organization focuses on upgrading internet access for public schools across the country.

Spena explained Education Superhighway has primarily provided logistical support, "providing DESE and MOREnet assistance in determining which schools have needs."

The nonprofit's website lists Missouri school districts with internet speeds below 100 kilobytes per second, per student - a threshold goal set by the FCC - that don't have fiber connections or report insufficient WiFi connectivity in their classrooms.

The site also provides details of those districts' current connectivity speeds, internet service providers (ISPs), the type of connections available, the capacity of those connections, how much the connections cost the district each month and the end dates of current contracts with ISPs.

The Jefferson City Public Schools and Blair Oaks R-2 districts are not listed on the site.

Jenny Lam, Education Superhighway's state engagement manager for Missouri, said Education Superhighway's initial analysis identified school districts in the state that have at least one non-fiber internet connection.

She said the data on the site provide the information the state needs on "how to best leverage the FCC E-rate program," and districts could use it to leverage contract negotiations with their ISPs when they see what their neighbors are getting and for how much.

Spena said for now the governor's proposal will not tackle issues of renegotiating contracts for better rates or otherwise providing districts with the financial assistance to afford high-speed internet.

Greitens' press secretary, Parker Briden, said the program is just a first step. The scope of the initiative is limited to putting the main physical infrastructure in place for districts to meet the needs of modern digital classrooms.

Lam said Education Superhighway will "work with the state as long as the state is willing to have us. We want to be able to be with the state until the job is done."

She said their work got Greitens' attention after his staff was briefed on their latest report, which included information about the connectivity of the state's schools.

From this point, Spena said MOREnet will reach out to its member school districts to provide information as the state's plan comes together. DESE will reach out to non-MOREnet members.

"We're wondering what the definition of 'high-quality' is going to be and the process of how schools go about to apply for those funds," and then how the state will bring high-speed internet out to rural areas, said Lyle Best, superintendent at Osage R-1 in Chamois.

"We don't see anything more than what's on the news," he said of the information he's gotten so far.

Lam said the summer will be a prime time for outreach efforts, with DESE, superintendents and ISPs being critical partners.

She also said within six weeks or so, Education Superhighway will have updated information from the most recent round of reports filed by districts with the FCC. "We should have the next kind of layer of the analysis of what that means."

"We have OK internet service here; it's not like we don't have it," Best said of his district's current service.

Like the limits of network capacity at Osage R-3, though, he said, "we have to be careful about (how much) we consume at any given time in the district." He noted people in the community who live in even more remote locations have had trouble getting internet service at all.

"We want our students to have the same opportunities that larger schools and city schools have," Ellen Ash, superintendent at Jamestown C-1, said.

Like at Osage R-3, "we're well on our way (with providing students with iPads and Chromebooks, also funded by E-rate money), but to maintain that and stay up to date with technology, I think the extra assistance will be beneficial," she said.

"If you bring the technology to the kids, they have the world at their fingertips, even though they're in a rural area," she said.