Yes To an E-Rate Reality Check

For more than thirty years, American communications users—really, American consumers—have been charged roughly $1 billion to $3 billion a year to subsidize Internet and related services for schools and libraries through the government's E-Rate program, which is one component of what's called the “Universal Service Fund.” That is a lot of compulsory generosity. Yet only now are policymakers asking the obvious question: Is this money helping students learn—or is it doing harm? Some treat that question as out of bounds. It is not. It is exactly the kind of review the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is empowered—and expected—to conduct. Credit the Trump Administration acting through the FCC for demanding answers and accountability. If ERate is not delivering, or worse, if it is hurting students, then it should be curtailed or ended. In the end, E-Rate should not get a forever pass because it began with good intentions. The FCC’s item appropriately asks whether the program still fits today’s realities and whether consumers should keep paying for it. That is just good government.

[Michael O’Rielly, a former FCC Commissioner, is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Free State Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan free market-oriented think tank located in Potomac, Maryland.]