While speaking at a middle school in the suburbs of Charlotte, N.C., President Barack Obama called for wider high-speed Internet access for the nation's schools, ABC News reports.
"In a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, why shouldn't we have it in our schools?" President Obama said.
President Obama is hoping that the FCC will "begin a process that will connect 99 percent of America's students to high-speed broadband Internet within five years," according to ABC News.
The FCC currently has a program known as the Schools and Libraries program, or E-rate, which provides internet at a lower cost for community institutions. The problem is that the Internet provided is the same speed provided to most homes, 20 megabits per second, according to The New York Times.
With an entire school running computers and possibly streaming video 20 megabits per second can become interminably slow. The upgrades that President Obama is suggesting would allow for schools to be provided with Internet with speeds up to almost 1 gigabit per second. There should also be some money left over for schools to provide wireless Internet as well, reports The New York Times.
In order to beef up the FCC program telephone customers will have to pay about $5 more a year and the program will have to be made more efficient. The money for the Schools and Libraries program comes from the Universal Service Fund, which also uses money to help provide phone service for people with low incomes and in rural areas, The New York Times reports.
President Obama was speaking at the Mooresville Middle School because of the success that they have had in integrating computers into their classrooms. Arne Duncan, the Obama administration's education secretary, had heard about the work that the school had done because he knew the superintendent. Duncan told reporters that the school had stopped purchasing textbooks a few years ago in order to not only upgrade technology at the school but also to provide each student with a computer, according to The New York Times.
"There's no reason why we can't replicate the success you've found here," President Obama said. "And for those of you who follow politics in Washington, here's the best news - none of this requires an act of Congress. We can and we will get started right away."
