We’ve heard stories of iPads in schools in Minnesota. They’re great in a lot of ways, customized education, no more heavy books to carry every day BUT they are considerably more  helpful for folks who have internet access at home – interest access that doesn’t involve data caps. Wired recently posted an article that promotes data plans that support iPad use outside the school walls…

Lack of home Internet access for school children is an all-too common problem, one that the FCC has referred to as “the homework gap.” Today, American schools are investing billions of dollars in devices and educational technology for the classroom. Meanwhile, venture capitalists are investing billions more to fund new ed-tech ideas. All this spending has changed curriculums, as teachers become ever more reliant on the tech tools constantly dangled in front of them. Now, instead of handing out reading assignments and worksheets from a textbook, they can show kids videos from Khan Academy and assign them apps that collect data on their progress.

This type of personalized education has been transformative for some kids. But for the hundreds of thousands of students across the country like Lopez, it’s isolating. For these kids, replacing the albeit imperfect equity of pen and paper with technology has put them at a distinct disadvantage, turning something as simple as completing homework into a Herculean effort.

But Qualcomm is working to make those iPads more useful at home by creating special rates for students who need it…

The unit, Qualcomm Education, is working to close the homework gap by convening other leaders in the wireless technology industry to help create the equivalent of a free-and-reduced lunch plan for data.

With this work, Qualcomm is capitalizing on a wave of momentum in the world of school connectivity. In addition to the federal ConnectEd program, which aims to give 99 percent of American students access to the Internet in school, the Obama administration also recently announced the launch of ConnectHome. Through this program, the government is working with service providers such as Google Fiber to bring high-speed broadband to 275,000 low-income households across the country.

They’re ambitious, well-intentioned initiatives that will, if all goes according to plan, have a major impact on the kids and families they touch. And yet, the companies backing these efforts—including AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and more—still earmark these programs as charity. That means they’ve set aside a finite amount of donations, and these donations have clear end dates. After that, schools will be left to figure out how to pay for the access they once received for free.

That’s where Qualcomm Education is hoping to make a difference. Instead of giving these data plans away for free, it’s pushing the industry to create a sustainable business model that might stand a chance of outliving these charitable donations. If carriers are willing to create a data plan for schools that costs around $10 a kid, then schools might actually be able to afford them. And carriers, forever motivated by their bottom lines, would have a monetary incentive to keep these projects up and running.