Remarks of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai at the FCC's E-Rate Modernization Workshop

The E-Rate program, and our work to reform and modernize it, is important.

Until 2019, the E-Rate program will collect and distribute over $12 billion to fund information technology in our nation’s schools and libraries. That’s real money -- $3 billion more than we committed to the Connect America Fund -- and it’s a real chance for us to make a difference.

The Federal Communications Commission needs to seize this opportunity for the kids of the 21st century. We should not settle for the existing system and just tinker around the edges -- we need real reform.

We need a student-centered E-Rate program that focuses on the needs of children. We need a program that replaces today’s complexity with simplicity, one that cuts red tape and makes it easier for schools and libraries to apply. We need a program that more fairly distributes E-Rate funds and puts small, rural schools and libraries on equal footing with their larger, more urban brethren. We need a program that promotes more careful spending, with additional transparency so that parents, educators, and the FCC can see how E-Rate funding is being spent.

Whether you call these reforms a student-centered E-Rate program, the ConnectED Initiative, E- Rate modernization, or E-Rate 2.0, the goal of meaningful change is shared by all schools and libraries, by service providers and equipment vendors, by Democrats and Republicans, by Commissioners and staff. The primary question at this point is how to achieve that goal. And that’s where you come in.