Key Legislation and Agency Proceedings

Anti Deficiency Act Legislation

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 Anti Deficiency Act (ADA). However, the next 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 in 2011.

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.

Achievement Through Technology and Innovation Act (ATTAIN)

The Achievement Through Technology and Innovation Act (ATTAIN) is a new technology program that builds upon the Enhancing Education Through Technology Program (EETT) under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). ATTAIN relies on data from several research studies to focus on the integral role of education technology in systematic school redesign and professional development for core curricular areas. 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 late Senator Kennedy (D-MA).

The ATTAIN Act would leverage the success of EETT in order to improve student achievement in core curricular subjects by providing students with technology skills, and access and support to ensure that all teachers are properly equipped to use technology effectively. ATTAIN would also fund professional development and systemic redesign initiatives that leverage 21st century technologies, prioritize funding to schools in need of improvement, and require states to assess whether students have attained technological literacy by the eighth grade.

Specifically, the ATTAIN Act would update the existing EETT program by:

• Increasing the share of state-to-local funding distributed by formula from 50% to 60% and adding a minimum grant size in order to assure that more school districts receive allocations of sufficient size to permit them to operate significant education technology programs;
• 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%, while emphasizing the importance of timely and ongoing training;
• Channeling the 40% of funds allocated for competitive grants, previously unrestricted, to schools and districts for systemic school reform built around the use of technology to redesign curriculum, instruction, assessment and data use;
• Aligning the program more closely with NCLB’s core mission by giving priority in competitive grant awards to schools identified as in need of improvement, including those with a large percentage of Limited English Proficient students and students with disabilities, as well as by focusing formula grants on students and subjects where proficiency is most lacking;
• Renewing NCLB’s commitment to ensuring that students are technologically literate by the eighth grade through requiring states to assess student knowledge and skills, including through embedding assessment items in other state tests and performance-based assessments portfolios; and
• Establishing a National Center for Achievement Through Technology to conduct research on education technology implementations and disseminatebest practices.

First Round of Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) Awards Announced; Second Notice of Funds Available (NOFA) Issued

Anchor Institutions Receive BTOP Awards

Just days before the Christmas holiday, the White House announced some first round awards under the BTOP program. A $4.7 billion program under the stimulus fund, BTOP was designed to support projects that expand the deployment of broadband infrastructure into unserved and underserved areas, enhance the capacity of public computer centers, and support the sustainable adoption of broadband service by users. The first round of BTOP will deliver funding through three funding channels to meet these goals: $1.2 billion for infrastructure build out, $50 million for public computing centers, and $150 million for a program that supports sustainable broadband adoption.

Since the announcement of the BTOP program last spring, the K-12 community has met with congressional offices and agency leaders to highlight the need for community anchor institutions, like K-12 schools, to achieve high-capacity broadband connections through the BTOP program. The announcement of the awards in December, as well as the recent announcement of priorities for the program’s second round of funding (more below), proved that the community’s efforts paid off. The awards largely went to applications that focused on bringing broadband to anchor institutions, such as schools, libraries, hospitals and other institutions that provide important public services. Examples of applications that received awards include:

• The North Georgia Network Cooperative received a $33.5 million grant to build a 260 mile fiber-optic ring that will connect 245 anchor institutions. 82 of these institutions are K-12 schools.
• The Biddeford Internet Corporation received a $25.4 million grant to build three fiber optic rings in the state of Maine. The 1,100 mile network could connect up to 550 anchor institutions, including an estimated 320 K-12 schools.
• Rivada Sea Lion in Alaska received a $25.4 million grant to provide 4G wireless high-speed broadband Internet service to Native Alaskan communities. The network will span 90,000 square miles and will connect homes, business, and anchor institutions, including 54 K-12 schools.

The White House also indicated that it believed funding “middle mile” projects, such as those servicing anchor institutions, “provides the critical link between the Internet backbone and the local networks that connect homes, businesses, and community institutions.” Accordingly, some suggested that these first round awards were an example of what the White House is looking for in future grantees.

First round grants are scheduled to be completed on a rolling basis over the next two months. And with only 10% of funds available for infrastructure grants thus far announced, there is much more money to come.

Second NOFA Issued

Shortly after the initial first round grants were awarded, NTIA announced the Second Notice of Funds Available (NOFA) for the BTOP program on January 15, 2010. This NOFA will allocate up to $2.6 billion through the BTOP program and, like its predecessor, is divided into three parts: approximately $2.35 billion for infrastructure now titled “Comprehensive Community Infrastructure,” $150 million for public computer centers, and $100 million for sustainable broadband adoption programs. In the January 15th NOFA, the program rules regarding public computer centers and sustainable broadband adoption remained largely the same. However, as indicated by the White House during the first round of awards, NTIA made it clear in this NOFA that its top priority is to fund “Comprehensive Community Infrastructure” projects. These projects are to focus on broadband middle mile projects and new or substantially upgraded connections to key community anchor institutions, such as K-12 schools.

Applications for funding BTOP projects under the second NOFA must be submitted between February 16 and March 15, 2010. All awards must be made by September 30, 2010.

Request for Comments: Changes to the School and Libraries Program Under the Universal Service Fund

In November 2009, the FCC released a Public Notice (PN) that sought data on and proposed changes to the E-Rate program, all of which were intended to improve broadband penetration. One area that the Public Notice was questione was whether the E-Rate program should be expanded to new classes of eligible applicants - pre-K schools, Head Start centers, community colleges and universities - and to new products and services - computers and training. In a strongly worded response, the Education and Libraries Networks Coalition (EdLiNC), a group comprised of the leading national education associations including CoSN and ISTE, asserted that the E-Rate could not afford these proposed expansions “because the program lacks sufficient funds to adequately meet the needs of existing eligible entities for existing eligible services.” EdLiNC’s comments went on to state that rather than expanding eligibility, the Commission should raise the program’s $2.25 billion annual cap, declaring: “The E-Rate cap has not been raised from the program’s $2.25 billion spending cap since 1997, nor has it been adjusted in response to inflation. EdLiNC heartily concurs with the sentiments expressed by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Rockefeller, in a recent letter addressed to FCC Chairman Genachowski, in which he observed that the program’s cap had not kept pace with inflationary pressures over the past ten years and requested that the Commission ‘expeditiously adjust commission rules to address the toll that inflation has taken on this important program.’”

The FCC also questioned whether the E-Rate and Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program should be merged. In their comments, EdLiNC objected to any effort to merge the E-Rate and the EETT program on the grounds that Congress intended that the programs complement one another and that the E-Rate and EETT each had different funding sources and different success measurements.

Other applicant groups expressed similar sentiments. The Council of Great City Schools declared that “significant changes should not be made to the E-Rate without a significant increase in the funding cap.” The Iowa Department of Education agreed, stating: “Unless and until the E-rate fund cap is raised to a level where the actual demand from current eligible users can be met, we do not support expanding the classes of eligible users… We do not believe that E-rate eligible uses should be expanded to pay for computers and other end-user equipment nor should E-rate fund professional development for teachers. Other federal programs, especially Enhancing Education Through Technology (Title IID), have served a unique function in providing all states with resources for devices such as computers, handhelds, software, and teacher professional development.”

Several providers weighed in on the PN, including Verizon/Verizon Wireless, Dell and AT&T. Verizon/Verizon Wireless echoed EdLiNC’s comments, saying: “E-rate cannot and should not be viewed as a broadband cure-all. Modifying E-rate to include ‘colleges, community colleges, pre-kindergarten, Headstart, or other entities to participate in the E-rate program,’ for instance, could undermine continued success of the initiative. Likewise, altering the scope of services eligible for E-rate funds could impact the sustainability of the program…adding computer equipment and training would likely place a significant financial strain on the fund. Computer equipment is constantly evolving and improving and thus could conceivably be replaced every year if E-rate dollars were available to do so. Similarly, a computer requires software in order to function, which would further increase the demands on the E-rate program.” AT&T also opposed the notion of adding computers and training as eligible services to the E-Rate program. Whereas Dell, Inc. supported raising the E-Rate’s annual cap to $4-5 billion, Verizon opposed a cap increase absent a showing of need.

Outside of the formal comment process, the US Broadband Coalition’s (BB4US) Adoption and Use Working Group added its two cents to the broadband debate by releasing its policy options report, Expanding and Accelerating the Adoption & Use of Broadband Throughout the Economy, to the Commission. Among its recommendations were:

• Promoting the use of technology to the greatest extent possible in every federal education program and initiative.
• Interweaving standards for educational uses of technology that facilitate school improvement, such as the National Educational Technology Standards developed by the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) into the development of these education policies and standards for 21st Century teaching and learning.
• Increasing funding available to the Department of Education to expand the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program.
• Funding the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust, a program to stimulate research and development in education that was passed as part of the Higher Education act reauthorization but has yet to be funded.
• Emphasizing 21st-century skills proficiency in schools, workforce training and retraining programs, libraries, and other educational and vocational resources.
• Significantly upgrading bandwidth requirements and moving towards 4G networks.
• Investing in digital inclusion and digital literacy programs that directly serve population segments that traditionally underutilize broadband connectivity: rural residents, seniors, people with lower levels of education attainment, people with disabilities, minorities and low income individuals.
• Increasing funding of the E-Rate program from $2.25B to $4B, accounting for inflation, covering the current need and indexing the program to inflation moving forward.
• Streamlining the broadband deployment application process while enabling schools to leverage their broadband infrastructure to reach into their neighborhoods.
• Funding ‘The New Preparing Teachers for Digital Age Learners’ at $100M.
• Supporting the ATTAIN Act 40 to improve the existing Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program and funding of innovative uses of technology.
• Restoring EETT at levels higher than the FY2009 appropriation of $269M.