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July 1998
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, 1998.
If you use excerpts, credit ISTE. |
Contents
Fcc Votes To Scale Back E-Rate Funding
Facing tough opposition from key members of Congress, the FCC voted
3-2 on
June 12 to significantly reduce funding for the E-Rate program,
slashing more
than $700 million for the next funding year. This decision marks a
sharp departure
from the original FCC order to disburse the full $2.02 billion that
schools
and libraries applied for earlier this year. The greatest impacts of
the FCC
decision will be to cut back and delay funding for many schools and
libraries.
The FCC chose to reduce the amount of money it collects each fiscal
quarter
from long distance carriers to $325 million (less than 1% of annual
long distance
profits) and instead will collect that reduced sum every quarter over
an 18-month
period, rather than the initial 12-month time frame. This delay will
decrease
the pool of money available to applicants for this school year and
delay the
second round of funding from January 1 to June 30 of next year.
The FCC decided to fund ongoing telecommunications discounts (phone
service
and Internet access) for all schools before allocating any money for
internal
connections and wiring, which constitutes 65% of funds requested. This
means
that many schools will receive discounts on Internet access, phone
service,
and external connections, but may not be able to afford the wiring
that brings
the Internet into classrooms. In fact, the FCC indicated in the “Fifth
Order
on Reconsideration” that it is likely that only schools that qualified
for 80
or 90% discounts will receive any funding for internal connections.
The FCC also announced that applications for next year’s financing
will be
delayed until October 1, 1998, with funding set to commence July 1,
1999. Each
of the commissioners cited a recent congressional backlash against the
E-Rate
as a primary concern in their decision to scale back the E-Rate. The
three commissioners
who supported the measure (Kennard, Ness, and Tristani) admitted that
the cut
in funding was disheartening, but said in individual statements that a
compromise
was the most reasonable answer to congressional criticism. “It is with
reluctance
that I support today’s decision,” Tristani said. But she explained
that she
felt that “it fairly reflects the competing concerns that face us at
this point.”
Ness added, “Today’s decision was a difficult one,” but noted that the
commissioners
“have taken [congressional] concerns to heart.”
Commissioner Powell dissented in part from the decision, saying that
he supports
the E-Rate program, but favors suspending it temporarily until the FCC
resolves
issues concerning all universal service funding. “I would like to
strike a different
balance than that struck by the majority,” he wrote. “Yet I support
the general
direction of the changes made in this Order.” Powell also went
further, making
it a point to specifically commend Kennard, Ness, and Tristani for
their decision
to implement partial funding of the E-Rate.
Commissioner Furchgott-Roth was the lone dissenter of E-Rate
funding; he advocates
freezing the program entirely. He said that the FCC’s decision
“defies” the
intentions of Congress, and reiterates his belief that funding
internal wiring
would be wrongful and often fraudulent. He wrote that “many schools
will not
even be able to spend the money allocated for inside wiring in 1998,
even if
the discounts were legal...[and] it would be irresponsible to issue
funding
commitments [and] allow public money to be distributed.” Upon the
issuing of
the Fifth Order on Reconsideration, Furchgott-Roth released an angry
diatribe
condemning the decision to move forward with partial E-Rate funding.
In the
statement, he decried the E-Rate as a “hidden tax” that is
unconstitutional—and
even suggests that the E-Rate is un-American, alluding the FCC’s
collection
of universal service subsidies to illegal taxes on American colonists
in the
eighteenth century.
Political Challenges To E-Rate In Congress Remain
The FCC’s decision to cut back E-Rate funding stems from strong
criticism
from key congressional figures. Shortly before the FCC decision, a
bi-partisan
group of the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce Committees sent
a letter
to the FCC commissioners, demanding that they suspend all funding for
the E-Rate
program. “We believe it is too late for the Commission to rescue
itself merely
by tinkering with a fundamentally flawed and legally suspect program,”
they
wrote. “Instead, it is time for you and your colleagues to put the
mistakes
of the previous Commission behind you, and start anew.”
Shortly after the FCC order was released, McCain, Stevens and other
congressional
critics renewed their criticism. Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and
Senate Commerce
Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) have both publicly attacked the E-Rate
and promised
swift legislation. “Legislation must be enacted immediately to
stabilize the
schools and libraries program,” McCain said in a statement. “In the
upcoming
session, I will introduce legislation to address the remaining
dysfunctions
of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the FCC.”
Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, stated
that he intended to pursue further cutbacks to the program when the
FCC appropriation
was considered in as part of the state justice commerce appropriations
bill,
but he appears to have backed away from that threat.
Though it appears that congressional leaders are beginning to take a
less
radical stance since the dramatic reduction of funding, the current
structure
of the program is still at risk. A number of influential legislators,
including
Senate Commerce Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Conrad Burns
(R-Mo.)
and Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), his counterpart in the House, have
rallied around
a proposal to devote a portion of the long-standing telephone excise
tax to
provide telecommunications services to schools and libraries. Speaker
Gingrich,
after a series of contradictory statements, threw his support to the
excise
tax proposal in a meeting with Silicon Valley supporters of the
E-Rate. At the
meeting, Gingrich rejected industry’s urging for E-Rate support,
calling the
current program “Internet pork.” He then announced support for the
excise tax
funding, although he made it clear he wanted the program block
granted. Whether
efforts to revamp the program take place in the few remaining weeks on
this
session remain to be seen.
Politicians Rally To The Support Of The E-Rate
Despite the many damaging attacks against the E-Rate, a number of
important
political leaders have reaffirmed their support for the E-Rate and
pledged to
maintain the program. After the FCC released the Fifth Order,
President Clinton
issued a statement on June 12 expressing his strong support for E-Rate
funding.
“I will steadfastly oppose any effort to pull the plug on the E-Rate
and our
children’s future—or to thwart the FCC’s ability to move forward with
this initiative,”
Clinton said.
A large number of senators signed letters to FCC Chairman William
Kennard
in support of the E-Rate prior to the commissioner’s June 12 testimony
before
the Senate Commerce Committee. At the hearing, Sen. Bob Kerrey spoke
strongly
in favor of fighting for universal service for schools and libraries.
“The E-Rate
is an educational lifeline for millions of kids in schools across
America who
would otherwise wind up on the losing end of a society of information
haves
and have-nots,” he said. “These kids are counting on us.”
FCC Commissioners Kennard, Ness, Tristani, and Powell also have
issued statements
that express their continued support for the E-Rate. FCC Chairman
Kennard summed
up the commission’s decision in a June 22 statement: “The only
alternative that
critics presented was to stop funding discounts for schools and
libraries indefinitely.
That would have meant pulling the rug out from under the thousands of
schools
and libraries that had filed applications in accordance with the
[Telecom] Act
and our rules and, more importantly, pulling the rug out from under
the opportunity
to give school children a year’s worth of training and computer-aided
learning.
I was not prepared simply to stop implementing the law and our rules
altogether.”
Fcc To Consolidate Slc Into Single Universal Service Corporation
Under intense congressional pressure, the FCC is contemplating a
plan to consolidate
its universal service corporations into a single entity, the Universal
Service
Administrative Company (USAC). This proposal would give the USAC
jurisdiction
over the existing programs for schools and libraries, rural health
care, and
high-cost connections, as well as any future programs. The FCC has
endorsed
a consolidation since the General Accounting Office had issued a
report that
found that the FCC acted illegally in creating the Schools and
Libraries Corporation
(SLC) and the Rural Health Care Corporation (RHCC) as separate
entities. The
three existing corporations will become divisions within the USAC,
which currently
administers universal service for high- cost connections.
Current USAC chief Cheryl Parrino will continue to head the revamped
organization.
It is unclear what role SLC CEO Ira Fishman will play in the new
organization.
The FCC hopes that the reorganization of it universal service programs
will
quell congressional criticisms of poor and inefficient administrative
practices.
This merger will allow the FCC to cut personnel in overlapping
divisions such
as payroll and computer systems. FCC Chairman Kennard endorsed the
plan, saying
that “further debates over universal service should be about policy
issues,
not administrative structure.” If approved, the plan will be put into
effect
by the end of 1998.
Long Distance Carriers Reduce Universal Service Fees
In response to the FCC’s decision to scale back E-Rate funding by $1
billion,
AT&T and MCI announced that they would reduce, but not eliminate,
separate line-item
universal service fees on consumers’ phone bills. Beginning in July,
AT&T will
charge customers a flat rate of 93 cents a month per phone line. This
marks
is a significant change from their previous plan to add a 5% surcharge
onto
long-distance bills. AT&T business customers will also see a reduction
in their
fees, paying 4.1% monthly rather than 4.9%. MCI also decided that it
would cut
consumer fees, reducing the surcharge on residential phone bills to 5%
from
5.9%. MCI business customers will pay 4.9 or 5% surcharges, depending
on the
size of the business. MCI also announced that it would not assess a
surcharge
for intrastate long distance calls, though it had previously said that
intrastate
calls would be subject to a 4.4% charge.
These reductions have eased the concerns of many consumers, but are
unlikely
to change the tactics of those who have dubbed the line items the
“Gore tax”
despite the fact that only 19 cents of AT&T’s 93 cent charge goes to
fund the
schools and libraries program.
Bills To Mandate Blocking And Software Move In Both Houses
On June 23, the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over library
and education
funding unanimously approved an amendment offered by Rep. Ernest
Istook, Jr.
(R-Okla.) that would require any school or library that receives
federal funding
for the operation or acquisition of computers to install “filtering”
software
to protect children from obscenity on the Internet. The Istook
amendment, passed
by the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations
Subcommittee,
directs that filtering software be installed that is “adequately
designed to
prevent minors from obtaining access to any obscene information.”
Because many
schools and libraries rely on federal funding in some fashion to
purchase or
maintain computers in the classroom, this mandate would extend to most
public
schools and libraries and some private institutions. This amendment
also appears
to apply to the 30,000 schools and libraries that participate in the
E-Rate
program .A group of thirteen School and library organizations,
including ISTE,
sent a letter to the House Appropriations protesting the amendment.
Just before
full committee markup, House Commerce Committee Chairman Bliley
(R-Va.) formally
asked the Appropriations committee not to include the Istook language
in the
Labor HHS appropriation, citing jurisdictional issues as well as “
constitutional
and administrative” concerns.
In the Senate, Sen. John McCain has finally reached an agreement
with the
opponents of S.1619 to bring that bill to the Senate floor before
Congress recesses
in early August. That legislation, which would requires all E-Rate
participants
to use blocking and filtering software to keep “inappropriate”
material from
minors, was approved by the Commerce Committee in the spring after a
contentious
debate. Sen. Burns is expected to offer a substitute that would
mandate Internet
acceptable use policies but leave the decision whether to use
technological
means to limit Internet access to local control.
Education Funding Falls Short In House Subcommittee
The House subcommittee responsible for funding educational programs
has cut
educational funding for fiscal year 1999 and failed to fund any of the
President’s
new initiatives, including educational technology. Though the Labor,
Health
and Human Services, and Education subcommittee is slightly increasing
funding,
the loss due to inflation (.4%) will represent nearly a $1 billion cut
in funding
for educational programs—and will reach nearly an $11 billion cut
within five
years.
While the subcommittee has chosen to boost funding for special
education and
maintain funding for most existing programs, the members have slashed
the budget
of many of President Clinton’s educational initiatives. The current
bill denies
$2 billion in funding to Clinton’s programs for reduction in class
size, after
school care, college-school partnerships, and urban-rural opportunity
zones.
The bill will also cut Goals 2000 by 50%, reduce professional
development by
15%, and freeze Title I and vocational education.
The most significant reductions, however, will affect financial aid
for college
students. While the bill does increase the Pell Grant maximum by $150
a student,
it also eliminates state student incentive grants for need students,
funding
for Perkins Loans capital contributions, graduate fellowships, and
merit scholarships—in
addition to freezing supplemental educational opportunity grants.
This bill will cut student aid for more than 200,000 students.
Specifically
, money for educational technology was either frozen at last year’s
levels or
zeroed out. The bill did not include any of the new education
technology programs
proposed in the president’s budget. Funding for the Technology
Literacy Challenge
Fund, Technology Innovation Challenge grants and the regional
technology educational
consortia were funded at last year’s level. Star schools were zeroed
out, as
was the telecommunications demonstration project for mathematics.
Programs proposed
in the Clinton Budget for fiscal year 1999, including the teacher
training in
technology initiative, were not funded.
Fair Use In Digital Copyright Headed For Commerce Committee Showdown
After weeks of negotiation over the future of fair use for educators
and librarians,
the House Commerce Committee is expected to mark up H.R 2281, a bill
to implement
international copyright treaties aimed at the use of digital
information. In
its original form, the bill as adopted by the House Judiciary
Committee failed
to assure that long-standing privileges and exceptions available to
educators,
librarians, researchers and other users of information, including fair
use,
would be fully recognized in a digital environment. The Commerce
Committee is
expected to consider an amendment that would right the balance between
content
owners and users of networked information .The outcome of those votes
will determine
whether educators and librarians, among others will be able to use
information
on the Internet without having to pay each time it is used.
Posted on behalf of the International Society for Technology in
Education
by Leslie Harris.
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