New Push Made for FCC to Add Funding for Cybersecurity to E-rate

A group of K-12 organizations has banded together to urge the Federal Communications Commission to incorporate cybersecurity purchases into the E-rate program. The goal of the 35-page petition is to help school districts protect their networks and data by expanding E-rate in three ways:

• By defining all firewall and related features as "basic" beginning in funding year 2021;
• Increasing E-rate's five-year Category 2 budget cap in future funding years to support additional cybersecurity investments; and
• Updating the agency's definition of "broadband" to include cybersecurity.

The filing was done by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN); the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA); the State E-rate Coordinators' Alliance (SECA); the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed); Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB); and the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS).