Wireless companies and educational institutions --- including the Catholic Television Network --- are battling over the future of the radio wave spectrum.

At stake is a portion of the spectrum set aside more than four decades ago by President John F. Kennedy for use by private and public schools and colleges.

That band of spectrum, known as the Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS), is similar to broadcast television, but recipients need a special decoder box to pick up the high frequency signals.

In Los Angeles instructional programming is provided to more than 50,000 students in some 130 Catholic schools. The Catholic Television Network --- representing many of the largest archdioceses like L.A., New York, Dallas, Detroit, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco --- serves about 600,000 elementary and secondary students. Colleges often use their ITFS licenses for distance learning.

Currently, schools can lease their unused spectrum for commercial uses, and many do. But wireless companies are proposing that the Federal Communications Commission change the rules and give them more permanent access to coveted and finite radio waves. They also want schools to be able to sell their channels for commercial use for the first time.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the wireless companies are eyeing this part of the spectrum for the next generation of wireless devices capable of providing high-speed Internet access.

The FCC may vote as early as June 10 to reduce the amount of spectrum set aside for education and to allow schools to sell part of their spectrum, which could be worth billions.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, joined by bishops from other U.S. dioceses, is urging the FCC not to alter nor allow sales of the spectrum.

"As the cost of education continues to increase, the resources we can provide to schools through our ITFS system are essential to keeping the quality of education high and ensuring that every child has access to the resources necessary to excel," Cardinal Mahony wrote in a letter to Michael Powell, FCC chairman.

Any part of the spectrum, once sold, "will forever be gone and outside the province of education," said Ed Lavergne, an attorney representing the Catholic Television Network, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and other dioceses.

Lavergne likened the sale of radio spectrum as similar to selling off some parkland to a private developer. It may raise money for a cash-strapped city, but 20 years later there may be little parkland left.

"The result, while privately beneficial, is not in the public interest," said Lavergne.

Indeed the issue has garnered unlikely allies during a heated presidential election season, including Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and others, who recently urged the FCC to preserve the education spectrum as is.

In California, 26 bi-partisan members of the California Congressional delegation asked the FCC to consider how ITFS is utilized in the state to train teachers, reach rural and low-income communities, offer college-level courses to high school students and provide professional development to nurses and doctors.