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Taking The Pulse Of The E-Rate
by Liza Porteus
State officials hail the e-rate program for helping them introduce millions of students to technology and the Internet, but many agree that although the idea is good in theory, it still needs work. And with the program on shaky ground since President Bush took office, some are wondering how long the school wiring program will survive.
What The States Are Doing
Since enactment of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, telecom users have been paying a monthly fee to go toward the $2.25 billion a year e-rate fund administered by the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC), an independent arm of the FCC.
An Education Department report released last week credited the e-rate with helping connect 98 percent of public schools to the Internet as of the end of 2000. Another report by the General Accounting Office indicated that the e-rate is so popular that applications for funding outstripped the available resources by nearly $2 billion.
Yet state officials say they do not rely on the e-rate alone. Although the program has allowed schools to receive federal funding to wire buildings for Net access, "the e-rate in many ways is just accelerating state and local efforts," said John Bailey, director of education technology at the Pennsylvania Education Department.
Pennsylvania has its own Telecommunications Acquisition Strategy to consolidate the 22 contracts the state had with telecom providers into one large contract for companies to bid on to provide discount services to the state government and schools. Within the next three to five years, Bailey said, the state's plan is to have high-speed broadband access in every school and state agency.
California has the similar California Teleconnect Fund, administered by the California Public Utilities Commission, which preceded e-rate and is used to supplement those discounts. But the state still uses federal dollars, including $200 million in 1999. "It's a great help to schools to build their connectivity for delivering technology," said Wayne Shimizu, an education programs consultant in California.
Texas has found the e-rate to be a boon to its efforts, "primarily because so many of our districts serve economically disadvantaged students," said Anita Givens, senior director of the educational technology division of the Texas Education Agency. Texas has received $125 million to $150 million each year. "The e-rate is something our schools depend on," Givens said.
Although Georgia puts its e-rate funds to good use, Georgia's educational technology director, Jane Royall, said her state is accustomed to having funds available independent of federal dollars for tech initiatives. Since 1994, Georgia has distributed state lottery funds to school districts to use for educational technology. "This state has been in the business of putting technology in school for a long time now," Royall said.
Overcoming The Bureaucratic Hurdles
But the e-rate program has not been without challenge -- and states are working to make the application process easier and are educating each other on how to reap the most benefits from the program.
"The general feeling amongst school districts is sort of mixed," Bailey said. "... They appreciate the funding that's coming to them. ... What they don't appreciate is the sheer complexity and the obstacles and hoops they have to jump through to get that money."
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has organized about 24 states to participate in regular conference calls and occasional meetings with the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau on the e-rate, and it has received a grant from the AT&T Foundation to broaden the scope of the effort to keep all states informed on the e-rate program.
"States are increasingly sort of aggregating demands and putting in statewide applications ... realizing that the state has some responsibility to get all access to the Internet," said CCSSO technology coordinator Arthur Sheeky. "We want to see to it that all the states are as informed" as others on issues like implications of e-rate-funded schools not installing filtering software on computers, as required under a federal law enacted last year. The group currently is working on an e-mail list and on posting a Web site.
But school districts occasionally face problems upholding their end of the e-rate deal. In Georgia, for example, some districts filed an application for Web-based video distribution -- but the schools were not aware they had to ante up their share of the costs. Officials from the San Francisco Unified School District last month decided to reject $50 million in e-rate funds when they decided they could not find $10 million in matching funds.
Defending The E-Rate
Although Bush has said little about the future of e-rate, what he has said has caused an uproar in the education community.
When Bush, as he had promised in his campaign, proposed rolling the e-rate into a general education technology program at the Education Department, for example, critics said the e-rate would be left at the mercy of congressional appropriations, thus threatening funding. Critics also said Bush's plan would have made religious schools ineligible for e-rate dollars.
The outcry against the idea prompted the Bush administration to backpedal. But Bush's proposed fiscal 2002 budget calls for the FCC to consider allocating e-rate funds on a need-based formula and expanding services to include teacher training and software. Critics say those changes, too, could imperil the program.
Sheeky questioned the plan to leave the e-rate under USAC's discretion but to convert it to a formula grant program. "That raises a lot of questions," Sheeky said, adding that the $2.25 billion allotment for the e-rate could change and opportunities for the program to grow could be quashed. The proposal also lends doubt as to whether the funds could be used for teacher training and software, he said.
The Future Looks Somewhat Bright
Some observers say that with the efforts of chief state school officers and the experience of Education Secretary Roderick Paige and other education officials, the e-rate could flourish.
"What's promising in this group is, the folks aren't just from Washington, D.C.," Bailey said. " ... Too often we have seen members of the federal government ... so far removed from schools, they almost lose touch with what makes sense. The fact that they're turning to states for some guidance ... is good." Bailey also said Paige "brings some real front-line knowledge to the complexity."
Others criticize the administration's approach. "When you start shoveling money out the door ... you've got to have some sort of policeman. ... Who's the policeman here?" asked Ken Robinson, the FCC's chief of staff under former FCC Commissioner Alfred Sykes during the first Bush administration. He said the way e-rate is administered "is an area completely open to waste, fraud and abuse."
But even Robinson said the e-rate probably is not in danger of being terminated in the near future. "I think this program is probably going to stick around ... at least through the first Bush administration," he said.
Bailey agreed. "All the conversation we've been seeing and participating in is not [about] ending the e-rate program but, 'How do we amend it and make it better for schools?'" he said. "In no way has any of this conversation emerged as eliminating the e-rate."
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