Broadband access limited in Illinois’ public schools

Posted on December 13, 2014

By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – For most of us, the Internet is a necessity. For many of us, that means broadband.

Except in school.

A new report claims only 10 percent of the state’s kindergarted-through-12th-grade schools have access to high-speed Internet through the federal E-Rate program from 2009 to 2013. “They’re probably right,” says Phil Halstead, executive director of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois. “The overall challenge is to get broad connectivity to those Illinois schools that do not have it.”

It won't come cheap. Halstead says $179 million stands between broadband and the state’s least connected 93,000 Illinois students.

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