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March 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
Applications for E-Rate top Twenty Six Thousand
The first round of applications for universal service support has
produced
an overwhelming response from all over the country. As of March 4,
1998.the
total number of applications for E-rate discounts reached 26,868.
23,215 of
received applications were filed on-line and 3,653 were posted
manually .Of
the total, the Schools and Libraries Corporation has received 19, 396
applications
for new services.
As of March 6, 1998, twenty four states have filed state-wide
applications.51%
of the applications have been from School Districts; 29%from schools;
17% from
Libraries or Library consortiums; and, 3% from multiple entities
consortium.
Nation's Governors Voice Support for E-Rate
On February 23,1998 the National Governors Association set a letter
to Congressional
leadership expressing strong support for the E-rate program. The
letter, signed
by NGA Chairman George Voinovich, Governor of Ohio and Vice Chairman
Thomas
Carper, Governor of Delaware, urged Congress "... to maintain the
integrity
of the program as contained in the original Act , including providing
adequate
funding for the first year of the program and thereafter." The letter
was widely
circulated in Washington and served as an important reminder to
members of Congress
that their states stand to gain important benefits from this program
and that
any cutbacks would be felt at home.
School and Library Corporation Release New Guidance for Applicants
In the past few weeks the Schools and Libraries Corporation has
released a
number of important new documents as a service to Universal Service
Fund (*E-
rate*) applicants. These new documents which are available on the www.neca.org
web site and via the toll-free 888-203-8100 help line, include:
- SLC Fact Sheet on Wide Area Networks. This fact sheet clearly
summarizes
the rules governing the eligibility of wide area networks for USF
discounts.
- SLC Fact Sheet on Master Contracts. This Q&A-format fact sheet
discusses
state and third-party master contracts and how schools and libraries
should
handle master contract purchases in their USF applications.
- SLC Clients* Commonly Asked Questions -- Set III. This document
captures
the 14 questions most often asked of the SLC Client Service Bureau
over the
past month and provides clear, succinct answers. Topics include
lease purchases,
shared vs. site-specific services, figuring discounts for education
service
agencies or intermediate units, and contracts for monthly Internet
service.
These three new documents join several others released by SLC since
early
February, including an updated Matrix of Eligible Services, a Fact
Sheet on
Billed Entities, and a step-by-step Fact Sheet on Calculating
Discounts.
The School and Library Corporation also released a clarification of
the 75
day "window", finding that the window will close on April 15, a day
later than
previously announced. That means the last date for submitting form 470
will
be March 18,1998 in order to allow the 28 days to run before
submitting a form
471.
Bill to Tie E-Rate Funding to Access Charge Reduction Expected to be
Introduced
While no legislation has yet been introduced, key Senate Commerce
Committee
staffers confirm that legislation to tie the level of funding for
universal
service to the amount the Federal Communications Commission reduces
access charges
for long distance is poised to be introduced in the Senate. While it
appears
that vigorous protest from schools and libraries across the country
has lead
the key drafters, Sen Hollings (D.SC) and Sen. Stevens (R. Alaska) to
moderate
the bill by dropping language that would have made internal
connections ineligible
for e-rate funding, a link between e-rate and access charge reform
would still
create uncertainty for the fund. Long distance carriers have charged
that last
year's access charge proceeding before the FCC---which reduced and
restructured
the way long distance carriers pay regional phone companies for access
to their
networks--- did not produce enough revenue to both lower rates and
fund universal
service. If the bill passes, the level of future funding for universal
service
would depend on the outcome of further FCC proceedings.
SBC Lawsuit Challengin the E-Rate Moves Forward in Federal Court
The lawsuit challenging the FCC's authority to enact the universal
service
program is moving forward in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, despite
earlier
suggestions that the effort might be dropped. In a brief filed on
February 20,
SBC, Bell South and GTE argued that the FCC implementation of the
e-rate was
unlawful. Among the chief complaints: that the FCC started the program
without
identifying an explicit source of funding; that non-telecommunications
services
such as Internet access and inside connections were eligible for
services; and
that non-telecommunications providers who were not obligated to pay
into the
fund, were able to draw out of it. While other RBOCs have stayed out
of the
suit thus far, they have until the second week in March to file in
support of
the lawsuit. The FCC and its intervening supporters, including the
EdLinc coalition
will file opposing briefs in April and May.
McCain's Internet Blocking Bill Moves to Markup
After a hearing on February 10th which featured testimony by a
commercial
Internet pornographer and undercover detective who investigates
criminal activity
on the Internet, the Internet School Filtering Act, S. 1619, a bill
introduced
on February 9 by Senate Commerce Committee Chair John McCain, (R- AZ)
and cosponsored
by Senators Fritz Hollings (D-SC), Dan Coats (R-IN), Patty Murray
(D-WA) and.
Daniel Inouye (D-HI) is expected to be marked up by the Senate
Commerce Committee
on March 12..
McCain's proposal would deny schools and libraries that do not use
filtering
or blocking software, eligibility for the telecommunications discounts
under
the e-rate. The only school witness was Elizabeth Whitaker,
Coordinator of Instructional
Technologies, Tucson (AZ) Unified School District, who testified that
her school
system does deploy filtering software, but urged that the decision be
left to
local jurisdictions and not be tied to eligibility for e- rate.
Many school and library organizations including the American Library
Association
and the National Education Association submitted testimony to the
Committee
opposing the bill and urging that decisions on how to guide children's
access
to the Internet should be a local matter. Testimony filed jointly by
the International
Society for Technology in Education and the Consortium for School
Networking
argued that " [T]he decision whether to filter Internet access should
be based
on local values, the educational philosophy of the institutions
involved, the
manner that the Internet is integrated into the curriculum and the
ages of the
students involved as well as a review of the costs and benefits of the
various
software options. "
Not all members of the Committee support the McCain bill because of
concerns
both about federal intrusion into local decision making as well as
questions
about the bill's constitutionality. For that reason, an alternative
bill may
be offered at the markup.
Congressional Subcommittee Ignores Fair use in Copyright Markup
A subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, passed legislation
to implement
international copyright treaties, but rejected an amendment that would
have
preserved the rights of educators and librarians in the digital age.
The bill,
H.R. 2281, a Clinton Administration measure to implement treaties
negotiated
at the World Intellectual Property Organization, contains protections
for copyright
owners but little protections for users of digital information
resources. The
amendment, offered by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), would have assured
that the
current balance in the copyright law between the rights of the
copyright owners
and users would continue in the electronic age. But the subcommittee
failed
to include any explicit "fair use" protections, leaving unclear
whether the
exception which allows educators, scientists, and students to make
limited use
of copyrighted works for educational, research and other beneficial
uses, fully
applies in cyberspace. H.R.2281, which is strongly backed by the
publishers
and both the music and motion picture industry, is expected to move
quickly
to the House floor unless opposition builds among House members.
Representatives Boucher and Tom Campbell (R-CA) have introduced
alternative
legislation, H.R.3048, which would take the "fair use" doctrine into
the digital
age. It would ensure that educators can distribute copyrighted
material through
networks to foster distance learning in a broad range of educational
settings
in the same way they use television in traditional classrooms and
broaden the
range of works that may be performed, displayed, or distributed as
part of a
multimedia lesson. Whether that bill gets a fair hearing in the House
depends
on whether educators, researchers, librarians and others in the fair
use community
let their members of Congress know of their support.
House Subcommittee Moves Higher Education Bill
A subcommittee of the House Education and Economic Opportunity
Committee debated
and passed a bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act in early
March. While
many members of the Committee raised the issue of the need to improve
pre-service
teacher training, all chose to wait to add provisions to the bill
regarding
professional development until the full Committee considers the bill
later this
month. In terms of technology, the bill does include a new provision
to allow
community service programs in urban centers to use their funding for
"improving
access to technology in local communities." It also includes a new
provision
under an existing federal program that assists Historically Black
Colleges and
Universities and other minority serving institutions to use their
federal grant
awards to create or improve Internet facilities, and other distance
learning
instruction capabilities.
The full House Education and Economic Opportunity Committee will
consider
the bill in two weeks. In the Senate, several bills have been
introduced to
reauthorize Title V of the Higher Education Act. Senate Labor and
Education
Chairman Jeffords (RVT) is expected to introduce a bill on the subject
soon.
Administration Pushes for Increased Support for Professional
Development
President Clinton included many education technology programs in his
FY 99
budget. Among those programs, the Administration will be pushing
Congress to
include in the FY 1999 appropriation bill $75 million to help training
all new
teachers to integrate technology effectively in the curriculum and
understand
the new styles of teaching and learning enabled by technology.
The Administration also plans to send a $30 million proposal to
Congress to
promote "Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships." It is designed as a
competitive
grant program for partnerships among educational institutions,
software developers,
subject matter specialists, and private employers to develop new means
of distance
learning. The Department of Education is hopeful that this proposal
will become
part of the Higher Education Reauthorization bill.
Requests for Proposals on Teacher Training Due Out Soon
The Department of Education will soon publish an RFP for a new
Technology
Innovation Challenge Grant that focuses specifically on projects to
develop
or adopt innovation strategies to reach new and current teachers,
administrators,
and other educators to help them to use and integrate advanced
technology to
improve teaching. Thirty million dollars is set aside to fund these
grants.
Applications will be available at the end of March.
Overall, $106 million has been appropriated for the Technology
Innovation
Challenge Grants -- some of it will be used for continued funding of
existing
programs, some will be used for programs specifically outlined in last
year's
appropriation bill, and $30 million will be used for this new teacher
training
in technology challenge grant.
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