On Friday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated to his fellow Commissioners a draft E-Rate reform proposal that would—in the words of the accompanying fact sheet—“revitalize the E-Rate program for the world of personalized learning.”
Chairman Wheeler’s draft proposal represents an important first step toward reforming and modernizing the E-Rate program—a first step that is largely consistent with many of our recommendations for the program (available here, here, and here). The draft proposal would:
- Expand access to Wi-Fi by shifting $2 billion in funding to Wi-Fi over the next two years to connect over 10 million students in 2015 alone; providing multi-year funding predictability; gradually phasing out support for non-broadband services; and adopting clear broadband goals while maintaining flexibility to determine local needs.
- Making E-Rate dollars go further by speeding consortium applications; setting the maximum program match at 4 to 1; and increasing price transparency.
- Simplify application processes by creating a simple process for multi-year applications; moving to electronic filing; and having zero tolerance for fraud or abuse.
These important, timely, and common sense reforms will strengthen E-Rate and speed the transition to digital learning for America’s students. Dedicating funding solely for Wi-Fi will help address one of the program’s primary challenges over the last several years as Priority 1 services crowded out funding for Priority 2. Just 5 percent of schools and 1 percent of libraries received support for internal connections.
We applaud the FCC for acting expeditiously to ensure these reforms are in place by the 2015-2016 school year and for committing to a thoughtful, multi-step approach to reform. The E-Rate program is paid for by ordinary Americans on their monthly phone bills; any decisions about the size of program should be made after these substantial reforms have been implemented—when stakeholders can make a fact-based determination about the needs of our schools.