Digital Voices

24 May 1999

E-Rate: Don't Let the Flame Expire

The poet, Yeats, tells us that education is not the filling of a pale but the lighting of a fire. The Internet sparks this fire in many kids for whom computers, properly supported and integrated into the learning environment, are key to unlocking their creativity and maintaining their interest in learning.

At the end of May, the FCC will determine the fate of the E-rate, again thrusting E-rate funding back on the front burner as it decides how broad the support mechanisms should be to wire America's underserved schools and libraries. FCC Chairman, William Kennard, has announced that he wants to fund the E-rate program at its $2.25 billion legal maximum, while critics shout that the program is too expensive and oversteps its mandate.

Having completed one funding cycle, committing, as of February 1999, $1.66 billion to reimburse telecommunications vendors for services to be delivered to schools and libraries, the FCC must decide whether to forge ahead with sufficient funding to meet year-two demand or to retrench from its commitment to wire these community institutions, acceding to those who want to reduce funding by using a portion of the existing telephone excise tax to maintain a weakened program.

The E-rate, as a key provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is intended to provide affordable access to telephone, e-mail and Internet services for schools libraries serving poor and rural communities. The E-rate provides cheaper telecommunications services, since it discounts the lowest rate schools and libraries would pay to vendors up to 90%. Since ongoing costs are the principal obstacle preventing administrators from investing in educational technology, the E-rate is a necessary condition to spur telecommunications infrastructure development in poor communities. In part the idea animating the E-rate is that since residents of America's poorest and most geographically isolated communities will probably not experience Internet service in the home for some time to come, these public access points would ease the competitive disadvantage these communities face in a digital age. By providing e-mail, the Web, and distance learning capabilities in disadvantaged areas, society makes a modest investment in bridging the growing digital divide that tears at the egalitarian fabric of American society.

The first year of funding, saw many large and small school districts and libraries invest in telecommunications infrastructure as administrators sought to outfit classrooms with Internet hook ups or to pull cables through school walls to usher in the wired school house. Whilst some E-rate critics focused on whether wiring a school internally even qualified for discounts, the overwhelming demand for these services reveals plenty about the state of America's learning institutions. Others suggested that since there is no real evidence that computer-aided instruction and the Web actually enhance student performance, federal regulators ought to roll back their investment in a largely untested classroom tool.

A sufficient response to these two criticisms involves taking a broader view of the role of the E-rate in addressing longstanding social and educational problems. The fact that over one-half of all E-rate funding for year one went to help applicants pay for internal wiring of schools -- rather than showing how off track the E-rate has become -- points to the overriding need to build a quality telecommunications infrastructure. The average public school building in America was 42 years old in 1998, which means that kids unlucky enough to attend older schools will probably not be surfing the Web without a hand up from this federal program. Renovating older school buildings is obviously a major priority for administrators who want to harness the Internet's potential in the classroom. The E-rate makes it possible for many administrators in poor communities, with children housed in outdated classrooms, to establish an infrastructure that meets the challenges of a technology-reliant society.

The E-rate thus squarely addresses the growing inequalities sprouting as a result of uneven access to computers and the Internet. Although it is often heard that the Internet is beginning to look a lot like America, it remains the case that minorities and the poor are substantially less likely to be online than you would expect by chance. Whilst 13 percent of all households in the US are African American, only 6 percent of these households are using the Internet, according to the latest Census computer survey. The National Center for Educational Statistics reports, moreover, that classrooms in affluent areas are twice as likely to have access to the Internet as low-income schools.

If school personnel cannot afford to lease high-speed, broadband connections and if they are unable to muster the resources to wire their buildings then how can this chasm be mitigated? Only through sustained funding to build capacity and infrastructure in schools and libraries can we straightforwardly address the social gap to which uneven telecommunications deployment contributes.

While appropriate investment in ed-tech is not the answer, it is one response to the growing social and educational gaps in our nation. As long as teachers are properly trained and the accompanying curriculum and content are edifying and fun, then we can expect that the E-rate will have a salutary effect on the overall life of poor communities. We ought to finish the business of providing all our communities the opportunity to utilize educational technology to its fullest. As the FCC turns its attention to E-rate funding, Commissioners should be mindful of the E-rate's potential to address the growing divide between haves and have-nots, while also providing students the opportunity to learn the skills that are key to success in our society. Only through meeting the demand for telecommunications services in a sustained and thoughtful way, meeting the professional needs of dedicated staff while funding the E-rate at its maximum level, will we ensure that the E-rate's potential is harnessed and its flame does not expire.

Tony Wilhelm, PhD
Program Director
Communications Policy & Practice
The Benton Foundation

(c)Benton Foundation, 1999. Redistribution of this email publication -- both internally and externally -- is encouraged if it includes this message. This publication can be found online at ( www.benton.org/publibrary/digitalvoices). The Benton Foundation's Communications Policy and Practice Project is a nonpartisan initiative to strengthen public interest efforts in shaping the emerging National Information Infrastructure (NII). It is Benton's conviction that the vigorous participation of the nonprofit sector in policy debates and demonstration projects will help realize the public interest potential of the NII.

© Benton Foundation
1634 Eye Street NW, 11th Floor
Washington DC 20006 USA

www.benton.org