October 20 — The Federal Communications Commission announced yesterday that they’ve approved a program that will allow all public school districts in the country to use certain broadband funding to install WiFi on school buses.
It was a 3-2 vote in the commission.
The three that voted in favor of this cited the fact that a lot of kids have commutes of an hour or more to get to school every day and may not have internet at home.
They believe this option could provide kids the opportunity to get some work in.
Attorney Clint Barkdoll noted, “The two that voted against this though are pointing out, wait a minute, are we just opening the Pandora’s Box even more by inviting kids to be on cell phones and iPads while they’re idling on the bus for an hour and they’ll be engaging in social media and other things that have nothing to do with education? But in any event it passed. That money is now flowing and school districts are going to be allowed to do that on their buses.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM suggested, “I think they’re drugging kids. They’re drugging them with the internet so that they don’t fight on the buses. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how damaging this is. How about that’s the one place they get a little bit of socialization with other students? Maybe if we establish authority with bus drivers, with teachers, with police again, we wouldn’t be having all the problems that they keep trying to put to sleep with these kind of dumb ideas. I’m sorry, with all the money going to Ukraine, where’s the money we’re gonna get to do this idea, which is gonna be very expensive? It’s like we’re living in la la land. Nobody has any connection to what’s really harming people or frivolous wastes of money.”
