In My Opinion

Righting the E-Rate
The once straightforward idea of funding schools’ tech connections now suffers from “paper overload.” Poway School District’s Charlie Garten suggests how to fix it.

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For much of last year, legislators urged for tighter E-Rate regulations to control possible fraud and other irregularities in the nationwide program to fund Internet access in schools and libraries. This ultimately means more bureaucracy and paperwork added to an already cumbersome process.

The recent passage of legislation to expedite E-Rate funds to schools is one step toward improvement. But the application process that school districts and libraries must endure to get those funds is still flawed. Schools face a maze of complicated forms, poor communication and accountability among Federal Communications Commission (FCC) staff, and increased regulations in a backward effort by federal officials to "fix" things.

The problem is that these regulations make school districts less likely to apply. Indeed, the last thing schools and districts need is more paperwork, requiring more time from already tapped-out staffs. Instead, officials need to streamline the shuffle, thus reducing the opportunity for fraud and easing the burden on all parties.

A Benign Beginning
The E-Rate started out fine some eight years ago with the simple idea to bring the Internet to schools and libraries with funding from fees that were assessed on the revenues of telecommunications companies. Government officials quickly hampered things with a complex process to collect data from districts and libraries and then distribute the resources. The added forms, restrictions, and constantly changing regulations governing the program often confused school district and library staff. The program had to hire more auditors to review the processes that had been put in place. Of course, the auditors' fees were paid out of E-Rate funding that would have otherwise gone to schools and libraries.

When schools finally did receive the money, it tended to go to the same districts year after year. Large school districts with a high percentage of students in free- and reduced-lunch programs have repeatedly received funds to upgrade equipment and to create excellent Local Area Networks (LANs) at each of their school sites. Meanwhile, many midsize and small districts—with lower free- and reduced-lunch counts—have received little or no funding for Internet connections.

There has also been a burden on participating vendors, particularly those telecommunications companies who must contribute, based on their revenues, to the Universal Service Fund. They, too, have been asked to complete more paperwork and meet more filing requirements. Some companies have had to increase their staffs just to meet the additional demands. Others have had their field representatives try to help library and school clients meet the E-Rate application timelines. While this isn't a job the field reps were hired for, that help has become necessary for medium and small school districts that can't spare additional staff time to complete the paperwork.

A Simple Solution
Some legislators have suggested scrapping the E-Rate. I think that would be a disaster. Yes, the process is flawed, but it has provided numerous districts and libraries around the nation with Internet connections and access to online research tools and curriculum that they otherwise couldn't afford.

Fixing the E-Rate program is quite simple: Get more funding to schools by decreasing the FCC E-Rate staff, reducing the red tape, spreading out the funds to more districts, and giving vendors a break in the number of employees they must have to complete the paperwork. In my view, this means changing from the current process to annual retroactive funding. Then tweak the process according to the following steps:

1. At the end of the year, the service provider sends a report to the district on its yearly eligible charges.

2. The district, school, or library fills out a form with the percentages of students eligible for free and reduced lunches. Send this form and the service provider's report to Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) staff with verification signed by the CEO, principal, or superintendent.

3. SLD staff reviews the funding requests, cuts a check, and sends it to the district, school, or library. Let all groups use this funding to support LAN and Wide Area Network (WAN) equipment, Internet, and cabling.

4. Limit the amount that any one district can receive so that more funding is distributed to more districts.

5. Reduce vendor paperwork to one report at the end of the year that is sent out to each appropriate entity.

6. Set aside 20 percent of the monies to cover home Internet access in order to help qualified students who can't access all the learning software and education assistance available online. This would help chip away at the digital educational divide.

Essentially, policy makers need to quit complicating the E-Rate process. School district officials have more than enough paperwork to plod through and certainly enough regulations they need to keep track of. What they need is a streamlined way to apply for and receive these much needed and helpful funds.

Charlie Garten has been the executive director of educational technology and information support services for the Poway (CA) Unified School District for the past decade. He is a Scholastic Administr@tor advisory-board member as well as a board member of Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the WinWin Strategies Foundation. He can be reached at cgarten@powayusd.com.

Charlie Garten is Executive Director of Educational Technology and Information Service for the Poway (CA) Unified School District.

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