Issue and Action Center

Support the E-Rate Program

The E-Rate is a vital program that must be preserved as Congress considers changes to current telecommunications law. Since 1998, E-Rate has been the driving force to ensure that nearly all students and teachers - regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances - gain access to online resources. For the E-Rate to continue, it is critical that:

1. E-Rate’s annual cap is increased to meet skyrocketing demand; 
2. E-Rate funds flow without interruption; and

3. that E-Rate is not subject to unreasonable new laws or regulations.

BACKGROUND

The E-Rate is a part of universal service, a support mechanism that was created in 1934 to ensure that rural consumers had affordable phone service. The E-Rate program, authorized under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, represents an extension of universal service. It provides public and private schools and libraries with discounts of 20%-90% for telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal connections. Since its inception in 1998, it has played a major role in increasing public school classroom Internet connections from 14% in 1998 to 94% in 2005. The E-Rate has also helped low-income, minority and rural students gain near equal access in their classrooms to their peers around the country. Demand for the program remains strong as discount requests frequently exceed E-Rate’s $2.25 billion annual cap.

ANTI-DEFICIENCY ACT LEGISLATION

Between August and December of 2004, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) was forced to temporarily shut-down the program because it believed that it was about to violate the federal Anti Deficiency Act (ADA). Under the ADA, federal agencies must have sufficient cash on hand to cover all program obligations. USAC collects E-Rate funds quarterly, so not all E-Rate dollars are available when USAC sends out annual funding commitment letters to applicants. In 2004, when USAC and the FCC determined that the commitment letters constituted obligations under the ADA, and that it had insufficient cash on hand to cover those obligations, USAC stopped sending the letters, causing some districts turned off their service and many others to endure major funding delays.

Over the past six Congressional sessions, Congress has passed and the President has signed legislation to temporarily exempt E-Rate and all of universal service from the ADA. The next the last ADA exemption expires on December 31, 2010. Without the enactment of an additional temporary exemption or a permanent exemption, the E-Rate could face another shut-down.

Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) have introduced legislation, S. 348, which would make permanent the ADA exemption for E-Rate and all of universal service. Representatives Dennis Rehberg (R-MT) and Betsy Markey (D-CO) have introduced a companion bill, H.R. 2135, in the House. ISTE and CoSN support both bills.

POSSIBLE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT UPDATE

One of the major challenges faced by the E-Rate in recent years has been the inadequacy of the $2.25 billion annual funding cap. Each year, the E-Rate program receives more than 30,000 applications seeking funding. Demand for the program normally outstrips available funding by $1.5 billion to $2 billion. As a result of the lack of funds available, the program has not been able to fund all Priority II applications since the program’s second year; only applicants eligible for 80% and above discounts have received Priority II support. Moreover, this year, with nearly $4 billion in total requests, E-Rate may not be able to provide full support for all 90% eligible Priority II applicants. ISTE and CoSN support legislative and regulatory efforts to raise the E-Rate’s annual cap.

Recently there has been considerable discussion about the next generation of E-Rate.  Specifically, there has been discussion about adding new eligible services to the program, including computers, training, and new classes of users such as pre-K and higher education institutions.  CoSN and ISTE oppose such additions to the program unless and until the E-Rate cap is raised.

Recommendations to Congress:
1.  Raise the E-Rate’s annual cap to a level adequate to meet program demand.
2.  Permanently exempt the E-Rate program from the Anti Deficiency Act.

Support the Enhancing Education Through Technology Program
Restore Funding to $500 Million in FY11

Technology is critical in our schools to both meet state academic goals and ensure students are prepared to compete in the 21st Century. America cannot create a competitive workforce and revive its struggling economy if its schools do not have technology-proficient educators, well-equipped classrooms, sufficiently supported administrative structures, and a curriculum that recognizes the role technology plays in all disciplines. The Obama Administration’s reducation of the Enhancing Education Through Technology Program (EETT) to $100 million in FY11 will not move us towards the goal of ensuring that all classrooms are technology rich.

LEGISLATIVE AND FUNDING BACKGROUND

Congress authorized EETT within the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) to provide school districts, particularly those serving low income students, with the resources necessary to integrate technology into learning. Congress supported EETT because it recognized that technology has an important role to play in achieving key NCLB goals, including raising student achievement, ensuring high quality teaching, and increasing parental involvement.

Specifically, EETT helps NCLB’s goals by supporting:

• professional development to ensure teachers are highly qualified by providing online training and enhancing their skills to integrate digital resources into the classroom;
  
• the implementation of effective and appropriate educational software and digital content for use in curriculum, instruction, and classroom/school administration;
  
• computer-assisted and online testing, as well as data-driven decision making systems, that allow for more immediate, relevant, and meaningful assessment of student skills; and
  
• technology-based strategies to improve parental involvement, including improved communication with teachers and access to student assignments and grades.

EETT allocates funds to states based on the Title I formula. The states in turn reallocate 50% of the funds to local districts by the Title I formula and 50% competitively. While districts must reserve a minimum of 25% of all EETT funds for professional development, recent studies indicate that most EETT recipients use far more than 25% of their EETT funds to train teachers to use technology and integrate it into their curricula.

EETT, THE ECONOMY, AND COMPETITIVENESS

EETT is critical to the nation’s economy and future workforce competitiveness. President Obama has repeatedly cited the importance of students from Chicago being able to compete with students from other countries. EETT provides all students, especially those who lack access to technology at home, with opportunities to gain the critical technology skills and knowledge that are prerequisites for obtaining jobs in our global, information-technology rich marketplace. These skills include technology literacy, communication, problem solving, and the ability for self-directed learning as necessary to improve one’s abilities over time as employment needs evolve. A 2003 US Department of Commerce report credits American industry’s massive investments in information technology with “producing positive and probably lasting changes in the nation’s economic potential.” Unfortunately, the same study indicates that, of the 55 industries surveyed, education ranked dead last in the intensity of its use of information technology. In a global economy that is increasingly replete with and dependent upon information technology, we cannot short-change America’s students. Our nation’s future depends on it!

EETT HELPS IMPROVE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Even though EETT recipients are afforded broad discretion in their use of EETT funds, surveys show that they target EETT dollars towards improving student achievement in reading and math, engaging in data driven decision making, and launching online assessment programs. This investment has proven fruitful, as exemplified in the districts below:

• In one rural Missouri school district, where the eMINTS program provides over 250 hours of professional development to change instruction through in-person trainings with the support of online communities, web conferencing, and online resources, teacher retention rates increase from 76% percent to 98% after their first year of eMINTS implementation. In a Utah school, student achievement of students in an eMINTS classroom was more than 10% higher than a control classroom.
  
• In North Carolina, several high poverty elementary and middle schools implemented the IMPACT systemic reform program, which utilizes technology coaches and school library media specialists for on-going professional development. The results: teacher retention increased by 65% and students demonstrated that they are 33% more likely to improve one full grade level each year than in control/comparison schools.
  
• In Texas, the Technology Immersion Pilot, which provides schools with technology resources and sustainable professional development opportunities, one participating school saw its sixth grade standardized math scores increase by 5%, seventh grade by 42%, and eighth grade by 24%. In another school, sixth grade standardized math scores increased by 29 points, and 10th by 36 points.
  

• In Kent County School District in Maryland, the percent of schools making AYP increased by 25% over one school year following implementation of the Technologically Enhanced Classrooms. The program, which focuses on training teachers to integrate an interactive whiteboard, classroom response system, and document camera into every facet of daily instruction, requires that teachers and students use this technology. In the 2006-07 school year, 3 out of the 8 Kent County schools missed AYP. By the end of the 2007-08 school year, only one school did not meet AYP.

EETT FUNDING HISTORY

Although Congress authorized NCLB at $1 billion per year, EETT has never received more than $700 million in annual funding. In the past several years, it has sustained major cuts, culminating in a 45% reduction in FY06, which left the program with only $272 million. Most recently, EETT received $269.9 million in the FY09 Omnibus Appropriations Act and an additional $650 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). However, Congress approved the Obama Administration’s budget for FY10 that cut EETT by 63%, leaving it with only $100 million. ISTE condemned this FY10 Budget Proposal, stating: “This cut stalls momentum, ignores demonstrated results and undermines the progress being made in our nation’s classrooms through effective uses of technology to engage students, improve teacher quality and individualize instruction for all kids.” Accordingly, CoSN and ISTE support funding the EETT program to at least $500 million in FY11. By increasing EETT funding in FY11 to $500 million, the federal government will allow states and school districts to maintain momentum in ensuring that all classrooms are technology rich.

Recommendation to Congress:
Fund the EETT program to at least $500 million in the FY11 Appropriations Process.

Support the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation Act (ATTAIN)

Educational technologies are critical to meeting the central goals of NCLB to improve student achievement and ensure that all teachers are highly qualified. They are also an important resource to equip today’s students with the technology skills and knowledge necessary to prepare them for the world beyond the classroom. The Achievement Through Technology and Innovation Act (ATTAIN), which is a proposed revamp of the current education technology program, must be enacted separately or as part of a newly reauthorized No Child Left Behind Act.

BACKGROUND ON ATTAIN ACT

Recognizing the diminished funding support for EETT, CoSN, ISTE, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), and the Software Information and Industry Association (SIIA) joined forces to update the existing EETT program as Congress prepared to reauthorize the NCLB. Working closely with our respective memberships we developed ATTAIN legislation, which would revamp EETT by: 

•  targeting its funding towards supporting technology-rich systemic reform initiatives with proven track records as well as intensive technology professional development;
  
• more closely aligning the program with NCLB’s core mission through prioritizing competitive grant awards for schools identified as in need of improvement, including those with a large percentage of Limited English Proficient students and students with disabilities;
  
• strengthening the program’s emphasis on teacher quality and technology skills by raising the portion of formula-grants set aside for professional development from 25% to 40%;
  
• reinvigorating NCLB’s requirement that students attain technology literacy by the eighth grade by mandating that states assess, at least once by the eighth grade, progress by students towards attaining technology literacy proficiency; and
  
• increasing the share of state-to-local funding distributed by formula from 50% to 60% and adding a $3000 minimum formula grant distribution in order to assure that more school districts receive allocations of sufficient size to permit them to operate significant education technology programs.

The House bill, H.R.558, is cosponsored by Representatives Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Hinojosa (D-TX), Biggert (R-IL) and Kind (D-WI). The Senate version of ATTAIN, S.818, is cosponsored by Senators Bingaman (D-NM), Burr (R-NC), Murray (D-WA), Hatch (R-UT), and the late Senator Kennedy (D-MA).

Recommendation to Congress:
Enact the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act.