FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel at Consortium For School Networking

About a year ago I came to your community and said I have an idea. I said we need to reboot and reinvigorate E-Rate. Here’s something I’ve learned.

It’s good to have friends in Washington -- but it’s better to have an army. And you and thousands of others who are deeply invested in our schools, our students, and the future of education have marched together and put E-Rate reform right at the top of the agenda in Washington.

We have a proceeding at the Federal Communications Commission designed to look at this program from top to bottom. We have reform ideas before us from stakeholders of every stripe. And we have an Administration geared up and in sync with its ConnectED initiative.

But connection to schools is no longer enough. We need speed. We need broadband -- not just to the school door, but to the classroom. Beyond speed, we need simplicity.

The bureaucracy of the E-Rate program has become too much for too many of our schools to bear. So we need to make it easier for beneficiaries to participate in this program. Finally, we need to spend E-Rate dollars smart. We need to phase out old services and make room for more high-speed broadband. We need to restore what inflation has taken away from this program. Then we need spend what it takes to connect all our students -- no matter where they go to school.