Follow the E-rate Debate

Table of Contents

• What's Going On
• E-Rate In Context
• What's Working
• E-Rate Players
• While We've Got Your Attention...

What's Going On

• The E-Rate in America: A Tale of Four Cities. The Benton Foundation's latest report examines the impact of the E-Rate on large urban school districts.
• Digital Beat Extra: E-Rate Activities in the Beltway. Recent E-Rate news from Capitol Hill and the U.S. Supreme Court.
• E-Rate related news summaries from the Benton Foundation's Communications-Related News Service.
• FCC approves full funding for second year of universal support for schools and libraries. (28 May 1999)
• E-Rate is Closing the Digital Divide, part of Benton's bi-weekly e-publication, The Digital Beat (March 1999).   See also:
  • New E-Rate Attack in which Benton reported on renewed efforts against this federal program (28 January 1999)
• E-Rate: Don't Let the Flame Expire (5/24/99)
  Tony Wilhelm, Director of Benton's Communications Policy & Practice program, argues why a continued E-rate program is paramount.
• Benton's FCC Filing on the E-Rate (5/25/99)
• "Boon or boondoggle?" by Nicholas Confessore, documents attempts to kill the E-rate. (December 1998)
• The Boy Who Cried Tax: Benton's former director of communications policy and practice, Andrew Blau, responded to the "Gore Tax" hysteria back in December 1997.

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E-rate in Context

• The language that created the E-rate program in the 1996 Telecommunications Act and Benton's summary of it.
• Relevant portions of Benton's Universal Service page and the summary of the FCC decisions.
• New Definition of Universal Service
• The Learning Connection: Schools in the Information Age examines how educators are grappling with the difficult interplay of technological change and educational values.  Its online companion piece, What's Working in Education, includes interviews with education technology practitioners about their experience implementing technology in the classroom.
• Turning NetDay into NextDay, an editorial from Andrew Blau and Patty Burness that appeared in Education Week. (February 1997)
• "Does It Compute?", Educational Testing Service's study about computers' impact on math achievement among fourth- and eight-graders. (September 1998)
• "Technology Counts," goes into great detail about the status and impact of technology in the classroom, around the nation. (September 1998)
• Computers Make Kids Smarter—Right? by Larry Cuban (Summer 1998).
• Technology, Communities, and Learning by Louis Gomez (1998).

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What's Working

• We'd like to profile successful efforts to implement E-rate programs.  Please share your lessons learned.
• "Connecting Kids and Communities," EdLiNC's report on the benefits of the first
  year of the E-rate program (May 1999) 
• 1999 E-Rate Survey of the States from the Council of Chief State School Officers (April 1999)

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E-rate Players

• American Library Association's Washington Office Newsline (ALAWON) follows E-rate related activities and legislation. Also available via e-mail.
• Consortium for School Networking provides annotated lists of web sites that offer valuable information about the E-Rate.
• Council of Great City Schools is an organization of the nation's largest urban public school systems, advocating K-12 education in inner-city schools, and governed by superintendents and board of education members from 50 cities across the country. 
• Council of Chief State School Officers, including their response to the 1998 FCC decision to substantially reduce the first round of E-Rate discounts.
• Education and Libraries Network Coalition (EdLinc) was formed to represent the viewpoint of schools and libraries in the FCC proceedings dealing with the implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
• ESchoolNews is an e-publication aimed at school technology decision-makers. They also host a variety of conferences pertaining to funding and managing education technology.
• Funds For Learning seeks to be education's one-stop connection to government funding for education technology.
• LearnNet, the FCC's informal education page, is about important FCC policy and education initiatives. Contains links to universal service LISTSERVs press releases, orders, and recent public notices regarding issues related to E-rate implementation.
• National Education Association boasts 2.3 million members working at every level of education, from pre-school to university and graduate programs, and has affiliates in every state.  See especially their e-publication, Teaching, Learning and Technology.
• The Schools and Libraries Division (formerly the Schools and Libraries Corporation) is the arm of the Universal Service Administration Company that processes all applications for the E-Rate discount.
• U.S. Department of Education maintains an entire area about education technology.  See also the department's National Center on Educational Statistics.

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While we've got your attention...

The conversion to digital broadcasting has immense implications for education. Here's what Benton has to say about it:

• Education & Digital Television: Seizing the Opportunity to Realize the Medium's Potential. A public opinion survey.
• The Digital Education Act: A summary from the Benton Foundation

See also:

• What's at Stake in Education Technology
• Benton's Cyber Pages on Education, an annotated compilation of links education-technology Web sites.

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