The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reviewing a program that provides roughly $3 billion a year to help schools pay for internet access — and one option on the table could put that funding at risk over a fight that has nothing to do with connectivity itself.

The program, called E-Rate, helps cover internet costs for schools nationwide, from rural classrooms to city high schools. It doesn't just support lessons — it keeps school security systems, HVAC controls, attendance, and payroll running too. For some rural and Native communities, it's the only way students can take specialized courses or reach language-learning resources that aren't available locally.

Screen time is a real concern for a lot of parents, and they deserve a say in how it's handled at school. But mixing that debate into the FCC's review of E-Rate risks tying a school's basic internet funding to rigid opt-out mandates. Noelle Ellerson Ng, chief advocacy and governance officer at the School Superintendents Association, put it plainly: "Screen time is a curriculum and a content question. The FCC is not the body to regulate those things."

Punishing schools' internet funding over a screen-time policy fight could hit hardest for students with disabilities who depend on assistive technology, and for low-income districts that can least afford to make up the difference on their own.

Parents should get real input on screen time. Schools should keep the internet funding they depend on for everything else. Those two things don't have to be traded against each other. Sign the petition to tell the FCC to protect E-Rate funding while it works out screen time policy separately — before schools pay the price for a fight that isn't theirs to referee.