All4Ed Flash: Disconnected – The FCC’s Homework Gap Setback
⚡️ Welcome back to the All4Ed Flash!
The FCC just voted to cut funding for school bus Wi-Fi and mobile hotspots—programs that helped millions of students, especially in low-income and rural areas, stay connected and succeed in school. These cuts come as temporary pandemic-era funding has ended, making programs like E-Rate more critical than ever. In this episode, we break down: – What the FCC decision means – Who’s most affected – Why education and advocacy groups are pushing back – What lawmakers are doing to fight it 🚨 Internet access is not a luxury—it’s a necessity for learning in today’s world. Cutting off these lifelines risks leaving millions of students behind. 🎧 Listen in to understand the real-world impact—and what’s at stake.
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Recently, All4Ed’s State Policy Center and the National Governors Association partnered to release a new playbook — The Governor Playbook: Future Ready Pathways.
This guide provides concrete actions Governors and their teams can take to strengthen how their states prepare all young people for good jobs and the careers of the future.
By aligning high school, post-secondary education, and careers, Governors play a crucial role in setting a shared vision for college and career readiness.
Through a cohesive education-to-workforce system, Governors can meet the needs of students, employers, and state economies—helping students find flexible, lifelong pathways to success.
This new resource offers strategies to align education and workforce systems, expand career-connected learning, and meet the evolving needs of state economies.
The playbook complements the National Governors Association’s Let’s Get Ready Roadmap, led by Colorado Governor Jared Polis, with a special focus on college and career readiness.
It lays out four key steps for action:
- Establish a unified vision—like Rhode Island’s Prepare RI or Oklahoma’s Human Potential Task Force, bring together state leaders, educators, employers and community partners.
- Create a management structure—creating and sustaining cross-agency councils and task forces that unite education and workforce systems.
- Link goals to performance—using dashboards like Indiana’s Graduates Prepared to Succeed or Virginia’s Education and Workforce Alignment tools.
- Align policy and practice—through executive orders, legislation, budgets, and innovative state initiatives like California’s Golden State Pathways Act.
The timing is critical. With new funding opportunities, Governors are uniquely positioned to ensure investments align with flexible pathways, transferable, connected academic opportunities, and high-skill, high-wage, in-demand careers.
To read the playbook, visit all4ed.org/statepolicycenter
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