For the last six years, patrons of the Brown County Public Library, nestled in rural Ohio, checked out portable Wi-Fi hot spots in droves. The 60 hot spots circulated more than 1,300 times a year, used by, for example, students logging into online school portals, a sick mother attending a telehealth appointment, and a recently laid off factory worker accessing Zoom for a job interview.
In a region where many residents have no other internet access, “We’re some of the ‘last-mile people,’” Lynn Harden, executive director of Brown County Public Library, says. “It’s not a matter of, ‘Can you choose something affordable to you?’ There's no option. People are desperate to have these.”
The program was made possible by a project run through the federal E-Rate system starting in 2021, which gave discounts to schools and libraries to support internet access. For example, the Brown County Public Library was reimbursed 80 percent of the cost for purchasing an $85 hot spot, due to the county’s high poverty level.
But Harden, other librarians and school IT directors across the nation are reevaluating the feasibility of hot spot lending after the specific E-Rate program that supported the practice was cut earlier this month.
“We were hopeful when this [E-Rate program] came about; we felt this sigh of relief of, ‘We’re going to address digital literacy and it will be equitable for everyone,’” John Clexton, library director of Michigan-based Gladwin County District Library, says. “And now we’re back to square one.”
Program Overreach?
The latest blow follows a journey checkered with back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats.
The program in question was initially launched under President Biden through the Affordable Connectivity Program, giving families a monthly subsidy to pay for high-speed internet as the need skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. While that version of the program ended in early 2024, a revamped version launched later that year. The new iteration included an expansion to include using E-Rate funds in part for Wi-Fi for school buses and for internet hot spots, allowing schools and libraries to receive a discount on both.
According to data analysis by the Associated Press, it offered benefits to more than 12,500 libraries, nearly half of them in rural areas, and 106,000 schools.
Republicans pushed back against the E-Rate lending program in late September, stating it “invited waste, fraud, and abuse.” It was run by the Universal Service Administrative Company under the supervision and direction of the FCC, and Republicans said the FCC “lacked legal authority for this expansion,” according Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed FCC chairperson. He pointed to the initial Telecommunications Act of 1996, stating it was intended to enhance access to telecommunications in classrooms and libraries, not the homes of children.
In early October of 2025, the FCC decided in a 2-1 vote to cut federal funding for both the hot spot lending and school bus connectivity programs. Schools and districts had requested $27.5 million for Wi-Fi hotspots for FY25, which ended Sept. 30.
In addition to Republican officials’ belief that the hot spot rebate program was a funding overreach, the school bus portion of the funding was also cut due to concerns that it allowed children unfettered access to the internet during their rides to and from school. However, multiple proponents of the E-Rate program pointed out that the internet service is on a school network and therefore subject to standard school rules and filtering tools intended to protect minors under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
The FCC decision comes at a particularly inopportune time from the perspective of school district leaders, who already made plans at the start of the school year about deploying Wi-Fi on school buses and building up hot spot lending programs.
“The move was basically pulling the rug out from under school districts and libraries who were planning to rely on these funds,” says Phillip Lovell, associate executive director at All4Ed, a nonprofit focused on expanding educational opportunities for marginalized students. “This is pretty unprecedented.”
Harden planned to place an order for another 60 hot spots this year, spurred by the program’s popularity. Since 2019, her library has tripled the number of hot spots in circulation. But the library leader from Ohio had to backtrack once the E-Rate funding was scrapped. Meanwhile, Clexton said his library in Michigan will have to use funds from its Friends of the Library book sale to support its hot spots — money that could have gone instead toward badly needed parking lot lighting improvements or a broken water fountain.
“We had the privilege of finding another route, but for a lot of libraries, this was their only hope,” he says. “And yes we got the money, but it’s always Peter robbing Paul; this takes away from capital improvement funds we’re so desperate for.”
There is no comparable funding mechanism to cover the scope of the E-Rate program, leaving many individual districts and libraries to cobble together the costs themselves, or apply for funds from grants, foundations or private donors. Earlier this month, Mission Telecom, a nonprofit focused on digital equity, stated it will match the E-Rate discount for the hot spots or school bus Wi-Fi.
“For districts who already have tight budgets, they may try to fill the gaps on their own, but it's not the situation that we should be put into,” Lovell says. “States and districts are not in the position to make up for these dollars that are supposed to come from the feds.”
Digital Divide
Proponents of the program are also concerned the cuts will hit both urban and rural areas particularly hard.
“When less of us have grant money, when less of us have capital to support resources — whether it’s buying hot spots or books — it does mean the price point of who can afford it will go up,” says Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association. “Just like rural communities, urban libraries can only take so many hits before the foundation starts to crack. And it seems they're getting wave after wave after wave.”
Clexton — who also serves as the president of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries – called the cuts “another smack in the face.”
“Back in my day, you used to research a book report; now schools are requiring a multimedia project, a PowerPoint, creating a resume online,” he says. “And someone that is working at McDonald’s full-time is not going to be able to provide internet; it’s so expensive.”
Clexton pointed out places with free Wi-Fi, such as community libraries, are tough to get to in rural areas with limited public transit. Keith Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking, added businesses like McDonald’s and Starbucks offer free Wi-Fi but often require a purchase.
“We definitely see a lot of schools providing Wi-Fi on the campus and hear stories of students sitting in cars outside the school in order to do their homework; I’m sure that will continue to happen now, and perhaps in greater frequency,” Krueger says. “These are not ideal solutions from a learning perspective, especially for low-income families.”
And with 90 percent of middle and high schools having one-to-one programs, which provide each student with a laptop or tablet, often in place of textbooks, being online is more necessary than eveadd pullquote
“It seems particularly cruel to give students a Chromebook if they take it home and there's no connectivity,” Krueger says
Future Hope
Some experts are more optimistic than others about the future of the program. Krueger said a “sliver of hope” comes from the decision being made by the FCC, not Congress, meaning a new administration — and new FCC with it — could bring changes. The American Library Association’s Helmick urged those with concerns to reach out to their local representatives.
“I think we can use our voices to express our concern and displeasure and frankly demand those who represent us to equip us with the infrastructure to thrive,” Helmick says. “I do have hope. I’m seeing across the nation when people stand up for our libraries, then the libraries win.”
But others, who have long played in this political battlefield, are more disheartened.
“I wish I had some silver lining but I just don't see it,” All4Ed’s Lovell says. “It’s just one more thing we would be calling on school districts to do for our kids. Their primary charge is educating our young people, but they also provide health services; after-school programs; we’re calling on them to be IT providers; and now they have the responsibility of this, but don’t have the money for it.”
