EducationSuperHighway (“ESH”) began a major push last week to encourage local and state organizations — including schools and school districts — to help promote the use of ACP discounts to provide free (or greatly reduced-priced) home internet service for low-income households. The ESH report, entitled “No Home Left Offline,” calculates that 51.6 million homes are ACP eligible, but that only 25% have subscribed. Perhaps worse, from a broadband policy perspective, most of the participating households already had internet service. ESH estimates that 17.7 million ACP-eligible households are currently unconnected. If we are ever going to solve the Homework Gap, these homes must be brought online.
ESH also provides an ACP Enrollment Dashboard that shows current ACP usage by state and highlights those states whose governors have made ACP adoption a priority.

Consistent with the goal of promoting ACP adoption, the FCC released a public notice last week (DA 22-1076) providing additional information on two pilot programs it will be funding. These pilot programs will give neutral third party entities (such as schools, school districts, or other local or state governmental entities) access to the centralized National Verifier system for purposes of assisting customers with ACP applications. Funding for these pilot programs is budgeted at $100 million for up to 40 participants. Details on the application process should be released next month.
E-Rate Central encourages larger school districts, particularly those with a high proportion of unconnected households, to consider applying for participation in the “ACP Navigator Pilot Program.” This pilot is specifically targeted for “[p]ublic and government entities, such as public schools and public school districts, and local, state, or Tribal government entities.” Schools already providing ECF-funded internet to low-income families might consider proposing transitional programs to facilitate household ACP adoption as ECF funding runs out.