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November 1997
News of U.S. Educational Technology Policy and Legislation
provided by the
International Society for Technology in Education.
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Compiled, written, and edited by
Phil Ugelow,
Leslie Harris, and
Adeena
Colbert.
Copyright ISTE, 1997.
If you use excerpts, credit ISTE. |
Contents
FCC Issues Follow up E-Rate Order
With less than two months before the Universal service program is
formally
launched, the FCC has taken further steps to resolve several of the
remaining
issues concerning implementation. On October 14, 1997, the FCC
released its
"Third Report and Order" #FCC-97-380 in the matter of
Federal-State
Joint Board on Universal Service.
This is a very important Order as it: (1) Establishes a
"window"
for filings from schools, libraries, and rural health care facilities
during
which all filers will be "treated as if simultaneously
received","
and (2) "delegates authority to the Chief of the Common Carrier
Bureau
to resolve unanticipated technical and operational issues relating to
the new
universal service mechanisms that may arise in the future."
This Order leaves it up to the Schools/Libraries Corporations to
determine
the length of the window and resolve other administrative issues
necessary to
implement the decision to adopt a window filing period , which will
begin on
the date that the Schools and Libraries Corporation begins to receive
applications
for support.
The creation of a "window" for all filers is intended to
assure
that those applicants with eligible pre-existing contracts will not
have an
unfair advantage over those who are entering into new contracts that
must be
posted on the Universal Service Website for 28 days.
The Order's delegation of authority to the Chief of the Common
Carrier Bureau
is also intended to speed up resolution of the remaining
administrative questions
because the Common Carrier Bureau can act more quickly than if more
formal proceedings
were required.
The FCC has also finally come out with proposed forms for the Universal Service
program. The FCC held a public meeting on October 10th to give school and library
representatives as well as industry an opportunity to give input and point out
potential problems. The forms will now go to the Office of Management and Budget
for final review. It is still not clear when the final forms will be publicly
available. The program's Web-site is not expected to be up until sometime in
December. No decision has been made whether to release the forms before the
NECA Website and customer service line are operational.
Testing Dispute Stalls Ed Tech Funding
The Labor HHS bill that includes all of the current educational
technology
program funds as well as new money for teacher training has now been
held up
by a dispute over President Clinton's national educational testing
program.
A compromise on testing was supposed to garner enough votes to pass
the bill
and to withstand a Presidental veto, but now both Democratic liberals
and Republican
conservatives have attacked th compromise, putting the fate of the
entire bill,
including its increased spending for educational technology, in
jeopardy . If
there are not enough votes to pass the bill, the Congress may be
forced to pass
what is known as a continuing resolution, which just continues last
year's spending
levels until a new appropriation is passed.
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