EducationSuperHighway 2.0

Internet access is not a luxury — it is a necessity. After connecting 47 million students to high-speed internet in schools, EducationSuperHighway is now closing the nation’s digital divide in unconnected households by providing free internet to homes that have access to a broadband connection but cannot afford it

The Problem
In 2013, only 10% of students had access to digital learning in their classrooms. Today, thanks to an unprecedented, bi-partisan effort by federal, state, and school district leaders, supported by EducationSuperHighway and advocacy organizations, the classroom connectivity gap is now closed. 47 million students are connected, and 99.7% of U.S. schools have a high-speed broadband connection. Having completed their mission, EducationSuperHighway 1.0 planned to sunset in August 2020.

During COVID-19, our nation’s connectivity crisis was brought to the forefront. Without high-speed internet access at home, children cannot participate in digital education, adults cannot work remotely, and families cannot access healthcare and other newly digital social and government services. Approximately 29 million households in the U.S. do not have high-speed broadband. Two-thirds of these households, representing 47 million people, are offline simply because they cannot afford an available internet connection. Known as the “broadband affordability gap,” this problem impacts virtually every community in the U.S. — urban, suburban, and small-town — and has become one of the primary inhibitors of access to economic security and opportunity. This reality is centered in our nation’s most disadvantaged communities, disproportionately impacting Black and Latinx households.

The Solution
To close the classroom connectivity gap, EducationSuperHighway 1.0 leveraged data to create a finite goal, build widespread commitment from key stakeholders, identify which schools needed upgrades, lower the cost of broadband by 92%, measure progress, and create accountability. They partnered with 85 governors in all 50 states to drive upgrades and provided technical and procurement support to school districts. This same playbook — leveraging data, partnering with the government, and providing implementation support — is the strategy the organization is now using to close the digital divide for the 17 million households that have access to the internet but cannot afford to connect.

Since 2021, EducationSuperHighway 2.0 has made closing the broadband affordability gap a national priority, changing how policymakers and stakeholders think about the digital divide and how to solve it — catalyzing bi-partisan action at the federal, state, and local levels. 29 governors have prioritized broadband affordability in their administrations. Additionally, Congress has funded the most significant single investment ever in broadband affordability through the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA). This investment includes the creation of the nation’s first federal broadband benefit, the $14.2 billion Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). In addition, Congress adopted EducationSuperHighway’s proposal to extend the deployment of free Wi-Fi networks — similar to those found in hotels and libraries — to affordable apartment buildings (MDUs). This extension makes the deployment of such networks an eligible use of the $42.5 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. In the next year, ESH 2.0 is focused on securing a permanent broadband benefit to deliver their No Home Left Offline goal and connecting 1 million low-income households to Free Apartment Wi-Fi by helping states deploy BEAD and other funding.