The Digital Beat Extra is a free online news service provided by the Benton Foundation. Much like our Digital Beat Daily , Digital Beat Extras are intended to keep you up to date on important industry developments, policy issues, and other pertinent communications-related news events.
Extras go beyond the headlines to get a deeper perspective of selected topics.
We welcome your suggestions to cover issues related to the following topics. After an extended period of relative political slumber, the debate over the role of the government in wiring schools and libraries to the Internet has picked up steam again in Washington. The E-Rate and its state counterparts have subsidized thousands of schools and libraries with billions of dollars in funding in order to connect these institutions to the Internet. Last week, the U.S. Senate voted to pass two amendments that, if enacted into law, would add new child safety requirements to recipients of federal E-Rate funding. If a school or library refused, they would be disqualified from receiving federal E-Rate subsidies.