Internet Safety News

E-Rate's First Two Years

by Anne Collier

The Urban Institute, a research organization, unveiled its report on the E-rate's early days.¹ E-rate is a program of the Federal Communications Commission administered by the Schools and Libraries Division of the Universal Service Administrative Company. The program provides eligible K-12 public schools and libraries, throughout the United States, 20 to 90 percent discounts on approved telecommunications, Internet access, and internal connection costs. E-rate discounts are based on the number of students eligible for the National Free Lunch Program. Schools and libraries in low-income urban communities and rural areas qualify for higher discounts.²

The nearly 58-page report, plus appendices, makes more useful observations than definitive conclusions. "It is far from the last word," the report's authors write, "and many questions are left unanswered, but these data may inform some future policy decisions." Some key findings are

• computers and the Internet are quite pervasive in U.S. children's lives, and most parents would be surprised not to see a computer in their child's classroom.
• once glaring differences in the availability of computers and the Internet between high- and low-poverty schools have all but disappeared...and there have been increases in classroom access in the poorest schools since 1998.
• the recent improvements coincided with the commitment of nearly $8 billion in E-rate discounts to schools and libraries between 1998 and 2001.
• 84 percent of approved discounts have gone to public schools.
• significantly higher discounts have been directed to poor and rural communities.
• per student funding for the most disadvantaged school districts was almost 10 times higher than for the least disadvantaged districts.
• state agencies have played an important role in helping to expand Internet access in schools and making sense of the E-rate process.
• not all schools have been able to make effective use of the Internet and related technologies in the classroom.

¹Michael E. Puma, Duncan Chaplin, Kristin Olson, Amy Pandjiris. A Formative Evaluation of the E-Rate Program. Urban Institute. October 10, 2002, http://www.urban.org/urlprint.cfm?ID=7969.
²The E-Rate Program. California Department of Education. November 2002, http://www.cde.ca.gov/erate/.

Anne Collier is editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org, a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online kids.