E-Rate Funding Fix Helps Schools Access Technology
Feature Story by Ritu Kelotra - 1/26/2005
Students at two schools in North Dakota will have access to the Internet more easily this year, thanks to money their schools received this week from the federal E-rate program. Since Congress's temporary fix to the program in December 2004, schools nationwide have been receiving funding to help bridge the digital divide.The federal E-Rate program helps schools and libraries pay technology costs, including computer wiring and Internet connectivity.
The bill passed at the end of last year, H.R. 5419, gives libraries and schools amnesty from the Anti-Deficiency Act, a cornerstone of control over federal spending, and the center of debate over freezing funding for the program last year. The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), the non-profit organization that finances the E-Rate program on behalf of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), had imposed the freeze in order to analyze new accounting standards for federal agencies and to decide whether provisions of the Anti-Deficiency Act applied to E-Rate.
Citing E-Rate's role in providing equal access to new technologies, several library and school advocates, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), had urged the FCC and members of Congress to support lifting funding freezes.
"As you know, there continue to be significant gaps regarding access to and utilization of technology, referred to by many as the 'digital divide,'" LCCR said in a letter to FCC Chair Michael K. Powell last year. "The E-Rate program, which has committed more than $10 billion to connect to the Internet schools and libraries nationwide, has played and continues to play a pivotal role in bridging the digital divide."
On December 8, 2004, right before the 108th Congress adjourned, the Senate passed H.R 5419.
"In passing legislation to fix the E-rate accounting problem, Congress has allowed thousands of schools and libraries to continue to provide telecommunications services to communities," an American Library Association statement said.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, classroom Internet connectivity rates grew from 14 percent in 1996, when the E-Rate program became law, to 92 percent in 2002.
Proponents for equality in education say that the program has helped reduce the gap in Internet access for low-income and minority students by helping the most economically disadvantaged schools first.
Since Congress's fix for the program lasts only until the end of 2005, the issue is likely to surface again this year.
