E-Rate Hearing:  Letter to the Senate

April 11, 2005

Dear Senator:

The Education and Libraries Networks Coalition (EdLiNC) greatly appreciates the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee holding today's hearing on S. 241, critical legislation which would permanently exempt the Universal Service Fund from a particular provision of the Anti-Deficiency Act. EdLiNC is an organization that was formed by the leading public and private education organizations and the American Library Association to support the passage and implementation of the E-Rate program as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. We commend Senators Snowe and Rockefeller, Chairman Stevens and Ranking Member Inouye, as well as over 20 members of the Senate, for co-sponsoring this important bill that would effectively ensure that E-Rate funds continue to flow to schools and libraries.

Without prompt Congressional passage of S. 241, we fear that all universal service programs face the prospect of significant and possibly protracted funding disbursement interruptions when the current temporary exemption to the ADA expires in December. EdLiNC fervently hopes that today's hearing will help speed the passage of S. 241 by the Senate and spur the House of Representatives to take similarly quick action on this legislation. At the conclusion of the 108th Congress, the Senate unanimously approved the existing one-year exemption. This exemption expires at the end of this calendar year and would thereby threaten the continued flow of vital E-Rate funds to schools and libraries.

Since it commenced operation in 1998, the E-Rate, which provides deep discounts to public and private schools and public libraries for telecommunications services, Internet access and internal connections, has played a leading role in connecting schools and libraries to the Internet. In 1998, only 14 percent of public school instructional classrooms were connected to the Net; as of 2003, classroom Internet access stands at 93 percent. Nearly all public library outlets are now able to offer Internet access to their patrons. Private schools have benefited substantially, as well, with 88.4 percent of Catholic schools providing student Internet access. The E-Rate's continuing importance to schools and libraries is easily observable by the fact that, in each funding year, requests for E-Rate discounts vastly exceed the $2.25 billion available annually. These funds are essential if schools and libraries are to remain connected to the Internet, the information superhighway.

Beyond these impressive figures, though, the E-Rate is essential to schools and libraries for the educational and employment opportunities that it helps provide. A 2003 report commissioned by EdLiNC, entitled E-Rate: A Vision of Opportunity and Innovation , found the following about the program:

• The E-Rate is an important tool for economic empowerment in underserved communities
• The E-Rate is beginning to bring new learning opportunities to special education students
• The E-Rate is transforming education in rural America
• The E-Rate is helping schools improve student achievement and comply with the No Child Left Behind Act
• Schools and libraries are devoting significant resources and exercising great care in completing E-Rate applications

The story of two of the communities profiled in the 2003 report, the Kuspuk and Kuskokwim School Districts in Southwestern Alaska, provides an excellent illustration of the incomparable value of the E-Rate program. Although both of these remote, largely Eskimo and Native American villages are only accessible by single-engine plane, snowmobile or boat, their students now enjoy the same online resources as their peers around the country thanks to the E-Rate program. Because of E-Rate-supported connectivity, Kuspuk's teachers are able to exchange lesson plans with their counterparts in other locations, and Kuskokwim's students are able to overcome the lack of certified math teachers in their area by taking online courses in math, algebra and geometry. As Kuspuk School District Superintendent Kim Langton summarized: "E-Rate funds are critical to the school and to the community; without E-Rate funds we would be hamstrung educationally."

S. 241 will ensure that E-Rate discounts continue to reach these schools and others like them uninterrupted. Last year, the program was suspended for three months, during which time thousands of applications from schools and libraries languished in the offices of the E-Rate's administrator. This de facto shutdown of the program occurred because the FCC determined that a particular ADA provision, which bars federal agencies from obligating funds without adequate cash on-hand to cover those obligations, applied to the E-Rate, and the program's administrator realized that it had insufficient cash in its accounts to cover E-Rate funding commitment decision letters. At the same time, concerns were expressed that the universal service high-cost fund's projections system might also fall within the ambit of the ADA, potentially causing a shutdown of that program. Fortunately, the 108th Congress passed and the President signed legislation to exempt for 12 months all of universal service from that ADA provision, thereby allowing E-Rate discounts to flow again.

However, we are drawing ever closer to another potential crisis for the E-Rate and universal service when the ADA exemption expires in December. Without passage of S. 241, the FCC would face the Hobson's choice of either shutting down the E-Rate and/or other universal service programs (rural healthcare, high-cost telephone service, and low-income telephone service) for a period of time, thus depriving needed E-Rate discounts to deserving public and private schools and libraries, or raising the universal service collection rates dramatically, thereby virtually imposing major telephone rate hikes for consumers. Therefore, we urge you to preclude the FCC from making either of these bad choices and pass S. 241 to permanently exempt universal service from this single provision of the Anti-Deficiency Act.

We thank you for your attention to this very critical issue, and urge you to support S. 241.

Sincerely,

American Association of School Administrators
American Federation of Teachers
American Library Association
Association of Educational Service Agencies
Consortium for School Networking
Council of Chief State School Officers
International Society for Technology in Education
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of Independent Schools
National Association of Secondary School Principals
National Association of State Boards of Education
National Catholic Educational Association
National Education Association
National Education Knowledge Industry Association
National PTA
National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition
National School Boards Association
Organizations Concerned About Rural Education
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops