Weekly Wrap-Up, February 20, 2015

Kansas City will soon be getting even more gigabit-speed Internet. AT&T announced that it will be bringing its Gigapower service to Kansas City, matching Google Fiber’s speed and price.

Schools across the country are trying to help students who don’t have home Internet, but some are running into funding problems. In New Orleans, school leaders are facing funding difficulties due to the recent E-rate reform. In Idaho, the House of Representatives passed an emergency funding bill to ensure that school districts can have Internet service for the rest of the school year after legislators pulled funding for the Idaho Education Network.

Schools and Michigan, however, are banding together to negotiate better prices for Internet access. Twenty-eight districts in Oakland County, MI are working together via the ONE consortium to bargain with Internet service providers.

In Ars Technica, Jon Brodkin reports on the potential legal barriers net neutrality advocates are pointing out in the FCC Chairman Wheeler’s plan.

Living Cities President and CEO Ben Hecht discusses whether we’re headed in the right direction for ensuring that everyone in America has home broadband.

Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Julián Castro spoke about the department’s desire to launch a program to provide low-cost or free wireless in public housing communities across the country.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop released new reports on Hispanic families’ usage of digital usage that show a divide in digital opportunities. The three reports are: “Aprendido en casa: Media as a Resource for Learning Among Hispanic-Latino Families,” “Connecting to Learn: Promoting Digital Equity for America’s Hispanic Families,” and “Digital Media and Latino Families: New Channels for Learning, Parenting, and Organizing.”

The Center for Public Integrity explains the consequences of the FCC’s pending decision on state laws restricting municipal broadband expansion.

And finally, in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen examines how technology is changing the way philanthropy works. Alberto Ibargüen, Mark Surman, and Darren Walker argue that we need to better leverage the Internet’s ability to revolutionize philanthropy.