Intellectual Property Law

E-Rate sense

By Susan Crawford

The US spends $2.25B annually on its E-rate program, supporting schools and libraries that provide Internet access and other related services.  E-rate is an important part of US communications policy - it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but the program has led to substantial internet adoption by these crucial anchor institutions.

Today the FCC said it would waive rules that require schools to certify that they will use E-rate funded services solely for ?educational purposes,? defined as activities that are integral, immediate, and proximate to the education of students. These rules have forced schools to carry out elaborate calculations focusing on their provision of internet access - with the consequence that school Internet access facilities that rely on E-rate funding stay closed during non-school hours.

Giving schools the option to open their E-rate funded facilities to members of the public during non-operating hours makes a lot of sense.  As Chairman Genachowski said today,

These connections will be available to adults taking evening digital literacy courses, to unemployed workers looking for jobs posted online, to citizens using e-government services, and for other uses that local schools believe will help their communities.

The “national purposes” presentation at today’s FCC meeting (foreshadowing next month’s National Broadband Plan) focused helpfully on education.  Broadband access could help personalize instruction so that students learn more, but there’s a big gap in high-speed access availability to meet the demands of schools and students.  Upgrading E-rate to set higher goals for school and library connectivity and to support more internal connections makes sense. So does allowing off-hours community use of school Internet facilities.  Very sensible.

Full post as published by Susan Crawford Blog on February 18, 2010 (boomark / email).