The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the E-Rate program, asking if E-Rate is still necessary and how the program should change. This proceeding could drastically impact the work of the schools and libraries that rely on E-Rate funding. We sat down with a handful of E-Rate coordinators to ask for their thoughts on E-Rate and the program's future.

How E-Rate Works and Where State Coordinators Come In

The Universal Service Fund’s Schools and Libraries program—commonly known as E-Rate—was created by Congress as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The program provides discounts of 20 to 90 percent on internet access to eligible schools and libraries and on internal network connections within them.¹ Discount levels are based on the concentration of students eligible for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)—a standard proxy for poverty—and on whether an institution is located in a rural area. The schools and libraries in the highest-poverty and most rural areas receive the largest discounts.

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) administers E-Rate under the FCC's direction. The program is funded through a fee on telecommunications services. In Funding Year 2025—which runs from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026—E-Rate committed approximately $2.66 billion in support to schools and libraries across the country.

Christine Morris, Digital Resources Manager at the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN), said E-Rate discounts enable libraries to secure a consistent level of service, knowing they can afford it at the subsidization tier they receive.

“A library's willing to commit to a $500 a month bill because they know they'll get that [E-Rate] discount, and the service providers are willing to bid out that 90 percent or that $500 a month rate because they know the libraries will have a five-year contract for it,” Morris said. “And [libraries] will probably continue with that service if it works out well and they bid well in the next round.”

Morris added, 

Why states have E-Rate coordinators

Every state has E-Rate coordinators that help schools and libraries navigate the federal program. Larger libraries (those with more financial resources) tend to use consultants, while smaller libraries with less capacity rely on the state E-Rate coordinator. 

“For libraries that have a lot of branches and very large funding applications, and also libraries that are regularly applying for [Category 2 funds], it can become quite complicated to apply for a variety of discounts across two categories,” Christine Gauvreau, E-Rate Coordinator for Libraries at the Connecticut State Library, said. “And if you're doing that for five branches and those branches have different needs, it can get quite complicated.”

For those larger libraries, a consultant handles the complicated patchwork of application needs.

“That consultant has the ability to basically file their applications and forms for them, and that consultant usually receives the review inquiries and audit requests and things like that,” Gauvreau said.

Smaller libraries really depend on the state E-Rate coordinators, who guide them through completing the application process themselves.

“It's one of the most popular services that the state library maintains,” said Gauvreau.

Applying for the program every year isn’t easy, especially for underresourced libraries with limited staff who may already juggle many responsibilities.

“It is not that [applying to E-Rate] is inherently unlearnable; it's just that you only do it once a year, and you have many other tasks, and by the time you come back to this 12 months later, it doesn't look familiar,” said Gauvreau. “Something might have changed slightly from your previous form. There are always these pages that you're not sure if you should fill out and so forth. And it's [E-Rate] such a big part of their budget. They don't have any way to make up that loss if the funds are denied.”

Coordinators also work with USAC to inform program participants of updates, changes, or issues with their funding applications or eligibility. 

“State library coordinators meet monthly with USAC administrators, and we provide them a list of questions or customer cases that we think need their attention, and they prepare responses to us,” said Gauvreau. “And we'll follow up on troublesome cases or things that need more expert attention.”

E-Rate coordinators stay in touch and share best practices. An American Library Association (ALA) E-Rate Task Force works with USAC’s Schools and Libraries Division and the FCC to improve and streamline the current operation and future development of the E-Rate program. Morris and Gauvreau are both on the task force, and Morris is Chair.

FCC: Is E-Rate Still Needed? State Coordinators: Yes.

In the NPRM, the FCC raises the possibility that E-Rate has solved the problem it was created to address—schools and libraries are now connected to the internet, so the mission is complete.

State E-Rate coordinators say this mischaracterizes the program's core function: schools and libraries are connected because of E-Rate.

“We'd be very hard-pressed to find a library in Connecticut that currently applies for E-Rate funds…that believes that they could continue with their current level of service without E-Rate funds,” said Gauvreau.

For Mala Muralidharan—the E-Rate Administrator for the Arizona State Library, an E-Rate Task Force member, and a librarian for the past 50 years—this argument ignores all that E-Rate coordinators and recipients have done to deliver on schools’ and libraries’ missions.

“That argument is, ‘Okay, I'm punishing you for doing well.’ It does not hold water at all,” said Muralidharan. “Why would we even strive to do anything better?”

Muralidharan adds that as connectivity improves, so do users' demands on E-Rate-funded networks. They need faster speeds, more applications, more robust networks. As the ecosystem evolves, so do E-Rate applicants' needs.

E-Rate coordinators warn that programs like the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which are building out more internet infrastructure, still don’t account for the cost of service on those networks, or the capital expenditures of schools and libraries.

“That is only the build-out cost,” said Muralidharan. “What about the recurring costs? You really can't say, ‘Okay, I'm paying you to build it,’ but then if you're going to build it, better not use it, because I'm not going to pay for the usage.’ It doesn't make sense.”

How Can E-rate Be Improved?

State E-Rate coordinators shared a variety of ideas for how the program could change.

Bring Back Hotspots

In 2025, the FCC voted to end the Hotspot Lending Program and the School Bus Wi-Fi Program under E-Rate, on the grounds that the statutory language establishing the E-Rate program did not allow its funding to be used beyond library and school property.

Gauvreau and Morris believe these uses are crucial. 

“The Wi-Fi hotspot program was so popular,” said Gauvreau. “ There was always a long waiting list.”

"School districts and libraries were really disappointed when that rule was reversed,” said Morris.

Heavy Emphasis on Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is not currently covered under E-Rate, but many coordinators say it's essential to building and maintaining the networks E-Rate supports.

“There's a dire need for it,” said Muralidharan. “And we need common sense rules about what cybersecurity tools are good.”

“Being connected requires cyber hygiene, right?” said Morris. “And so some basic cyber hygiene as part of the E-Rate Program would make sense to me.”

Include Disaster Resiliency

E-Rate coordinators, especially Morris, brought up backups for disaster resiliency as another essential need to maintain consistent service for community anchor institutions.

“One of the things that we have seen in Ohio just in the last week: floods, winds, tornadoes, natural disasters throughout the state,” said Morris. “We have seen communities look to their libraries, which have said, ‘Our doors are open, our lights are on, we have internet. Come file your insurance claims here.’”

To Morris, E-Rate-funded networks support a whole host of things that keep a library up and running, all with interconnected needs.

“Libraries have their HVAC systems connected to the internet and their security [systems],” she said. “There are all sorts of levels of things that rely on connectivity besides the learning that happens in libraries.”

The People that E-Rate Serves

Each library is a different story, according to state E-Rate coordinators. And the number of people impacted by E-Rate-funded networks is countless.

“Numbers tell a story. Of course they do,” said Muralidharan. “The open data captures a lot of this thing. What the open data does not capture are the stories and the heart-wrenching facts [of how] people use the library for so many different things.”

Muralidharan tells the story of a health fair she did at a Navajo Nation library, and the folks who benefited from that kind of programming at their local library.

“We were demonstrating the telehealth options that the library had,” said Muralidharan.

For one woman, whose elderly father looks after her children while she’s at work, taking him to his healthcare appointments meant finding childcare and then driving an hour to the healthcare center and back.

When her local library offered telehealth through the fair, Muralidharan said it drastically changed the resources she had access to.

“She said the library's just five minutes away from [her] home. She would just go drop her children off, as well as her dad, at the library, [where] she knows her children are safe, and have the telehealth meeting, without taking time off.”

To Muralidharan, this level of care can’t happen without the E-Rate-funded connectivity.

Notes

1. E-Rate funds two tiers of services: "category one" provides broadband connectivity to a school or library building, and "category two" provides connectivity within buildings (such as Wi-Fi access points, routers, switches, and managed internal broadband).

Grace Tepper was an editor and researcher at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society until September 2026. Zoë Walker is a policy associate at Benton. 

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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