Giving Compass' Take:

• Education technology leaders have come out in support of net neutrality siting the difficulty they would have dealing with providers without it. Public libraries are concerned that their free services will suffer, hurting their communities. 

• How can philanthropy support net neutrality? How can donors help schools and libraries to cope if net neutrality remains repealed? 

• Learn more about net neutrality in schools. 

Last December the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal net neutrality, a set of rules prohibiting broadband providers from prioritizing web traffic. In response, on May 16nd, senators will have the opportunity to vote on a resolution under the Congressional Review Act that could block the FCC’s repeal, restoring net neutrality rules.

Joining together in a unique showing of solidarity during a press phone call on May 14th, public library and education technology leaders took a stance in favor of the resolution, noting that the repeal of net neutrality posed risks for public research and broadband access in K-12 schools.

The bottom line is, what the FCC has done has removed the guardrails for school districts. Now school districts are expected to become the police of the internet in order to make sure their service provider is not doing bad behaviors.

Explains Keith Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).

In addition, he notes that the loss of net neutrality could raise prices and reduce options for students in communities that are already limited and struggling to find providers. Even in big cities, many schools only have a single option for a broadband provider, making it difficult for districts to hold them accountable if they begin to throttle certain websites.

Library officials, one of the largest providers of public information inside and out of schools, also pointed to concerns about the ability to upload and download free materials for users. Leaders from the American Library Association and Association of Research Libraries noted that many innovative and smaller digital content providers lacked the resources to pay additional fees to avoid being throttled.

Read the full article about education and net nuetrality by Jenny Abamu at EdSurge.