E-rate/Schools and Libraries Program

Many schools and libraries rely on the Federal Communications Commission’s E-Rate program to ensure that they can receive affordable, high-speed broadband to connect today’s students with next-generation learning opportunities.

In a letter, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition applauded Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai for promoting fiber broadband deployment to schools and libraries through the E-rate program. “Competitive bidding has been a fundamental principle of the E-rate program since its inception,” said John Windhausen, executive director of the SHLB Coalition.

Connected Nation has been selected by EducationSuperHighway to carry forward its mission to ensure state and school district leaders have the information they need to improve school broadband (high-speed internet) connectivity. This will be made possible through a new tool—Connect K-12—that will equip them with key information and analytics needed to improve school broadband access in their communities.

On May 7, 2019, Reps Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), and Jennifer González-Colón (D-PR) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai regarding communications restoration efforts in Puerto Rico following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. "It is no secret that the cost of deploying fiber or other forms of wireline and wireless broadband access to our nation's rural and remote communities is expensive, and we have an obligation to bridge the digital divide for all communities, regardless of where they may be located.

Only about a third of California households in rural areas are subscribed to internet service, compared with 78 percent in urban areas, according to an EdSource analysis of data from the California Public Utilities Commission. The divide between students who have access to internet and computers required to do assignments at home and those who don’t is known as the “homework gap.” And it threatens to slow down efforts to close the gap in educational opportunities between students in rural regions of California and their wealthier counterparts around the state.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau announces the E-Rate program category two budget multipliers and funding floor amounts for funding year 2020. In the recently adopted Category Two Report and Order, the FCC extended the test period for the category two budget approach from five years to six years and provided a pro-rated portion of category two funding for all applicants for funding year 2020, the sixth and final year of the test period. The FCC then directed the Bureau to release the updated category two budget multipliers and funding floor, adjusted for i

On Oct 29, various Members of Congress from Texas wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to express concern about potential loopholes with Universal Service Fund (USF) Schools and Libraries Program (E-Rate) that have allowed Federal dollars to be used to overbuild existing broadband networks in Texas. They urged the FCC to reform E-Rate that ensures finite Federal resources are being used efficiently to close the digital divide without overbuilding existing networks, especially networks already constructed with USF or other Federal support.

Only a third of rural California households have internet access, compared to 78% of urban households, limiting the number of students who can finish online homework assignments, according to an EdSource analysis analysis of California Public Utilities Commission data. While low-income families are the most likely to lack internet access because the additional payment is too much, there's also a lack of service providers and options.

In July 2019, the US Government Accountability Office issued a report recommending that the Federal Communications Commission assess and report on the potential benefits, costs, and challenges of making wireless access off school grounds eligible for E-rate.

In a Report and Order adopted November 20, the Federal Communications Commission made permanent the “category two budget” approach that the FCC adopted in 2014 to fund these internal connections with schools and libraries. The category two budget approach consists of five-year budgets for schools and libraries that provide a set amount of funding to support internal connections.