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News of U.S. educational technology policy and legislation, posted as a service of ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education. Copyright © 2005 ISTE
Guide to acronyms used in Washington Notes
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December, 2005 Contents
EETT Update
EETT Appropriation for FY06 Finally Settled
Four days before Christmas, the Senate joined the House in finally approving, by voice vote, the FY06 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill. The bill contains only $275 million for the Enhancing Education Through Technology program (EETT). Additionally, with Congress's approval of the FY06 Defense Appropriations bill, EETT (and other programs) will be cut another 1% to offset the cost of hurricane relief. As a result, EETT's final funding figure this year will be $272.25 million. The President signed these measures into law December 30.
This concludes a long, tortuous odyssey for FY06 education appropriations. Prior to Thanksgiving, the full House had voted down an initial version of the Labor HHS and Education spending bill, with members expressing a variety of reasons for their votes against it. When Congress returned from its Thanksgiving break, House and Senate Appropriations Conferees made only a few changes to the original legislation, including adding $90 million for rural health programs and $90 million for Medicare prescription coverage. Neither EETT nor any other education programs received funding upgrades in this renegotiated package. The changes, small as they were, proved sufficient to secure House approval of the bill, which passed on December 14th by a two-vote margin.
New Distribution Strategies, New NCLB Challenges
Major cuts mean that states need more flexibility in how they distribute remaining EETT program funds to school districts. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) sections that govern the EETT program require that the US Department of Education disburse half of all EETT funding to eligible school districts (more than 80% of all districts last year) via competition and the other half via formula – even if the formula distribution would lead to tiny allotments for each district. To address this issue, the FY06 Labor HHS and Education bill allows state education agencies, who disburse the funds directly to EETT school districts, the option of disbursing all of its EETT funds through competitive grants.
ISTE CEO, Don Knezek, notes that "without federal support for technology in schools, there is little hope that either the spirit or letter of No Child Left Behind can be met by schools and states across this nation. Reducing federal support for Ed Tech essentials such as technology-rich learning environments and effective teaching significantly reduces schools' ability to meet NCLB requirements."
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E-Rate Update
ISTE Members Take Lead in E-Rate Recommendations
ISTE board and members have been very active on the E-Rate issue in recent months, according to Hilary Goldmann, ISTE's Director of Government Affairs. "FCC (Federal Communication Commission) staff challenged us at a September meeting to develop new performance measures for the program," she says. "And we met the challenge -- thanks to the wise counsel and invaluable experience of a new E-Rate Advisory group."
The group's input guided formal recommendations made by ISTE and CoSN during the recent comment cycle for an FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the E-Rate and Universal Service. These recommendations included the following points.
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The Commission should develop and implement new E-Rate performance measures that measure the program’s success based on the availability of adequate connection speed and bandwidth to student and teacher desktop computing devices or the wireless hubs that serve them. The Commission should institute an initial three to five year goal of establishing one Gigabit connections for each of the three critical connections that determine actual speed at the desktop: a) current average connection speeds between WANs (or LANs) and the Internet (upstream and downstream); b) current average connection speeds between WANs and district buildings; and c) current average connection speeds inside the building to the desktop computing device or wireless router. Once three years have elapsed under the new performance measures system, the Commission should reevaluate whether schools’ available connection speeds and bandwidth are adequate by assessing their current educational needs and comparing school connection speeds and bandwidth to those available to private companies.
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The Commission should not transform the E-Rate into a formula-based program, nor should it expand E-Rate support to non-telecommunications related services.
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The Commission should undertake reasonable efforts to deter waste, fraud and abuse, including imposing stiffer sanctions on applicants and vendors who repeatedly and knowingly violate important program rules, but should not establish funding caps, goldplating rules, maximum service price guidelines, and three bid minimums for competitive bids.
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The Commission should undertake efforts to streamline the application process, including allowing multi-year Priority I applications, but also should establish deadlines for USAC’s processing of applicant funding commitments, appeals and audits.
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The Commission should include a district technology leader on USAC’s Board and formally establish a practitioner panel to guide USAC decision-making.
FCC Action Slows Due to Vacancies
Work at the Commission on this and other matters has been slowed somewhat because only three Commissioners remain at their posts. Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy left her post in early December and the vacancy created by Kevin Martin’s ascension to the chairmanship from his Commissioner position is still unfilled. Deborah Tate, a Tennessee Valley Authority Commissioner, has been nominated to one of the vacancies but has not yet been confirmed. At her recent confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, Ms. Tate fielded a question from Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), the co-chair of the Committee, regarding her position on changing the E-Rate from an application-based system to a formula grant program. Ms. Tate responded by mentioning that she supported the E-Rate and its assistance in connecting all of Tennessee's schools. On the specific issue of the formula, she indicated that she had not yet read all of the comments on this matter but that she wanted funds to be spent well and inefficiencies in the system to be removed.
Application Filing Window for 2006 Closes February 16
Meanwhile, the Universal Service Administrative Company, the E-Rate’s administrator, is already working on applications for Program Year 2006. On December 6, USAC opened the application filing window for the new program year. The window will close on February 16, 2006.
Key Legislation Begins Circulating
Two pieces of legislation that would overhaul the universal service fund, which funds the E-Rate program, have begun to circulate in Washington. Both have potentially significant ramifications for the E-Rate. One piece of legislation, authored by Representatives Lee Terry (R-NE) and Rick Boucher (D-VA), would preserve the E-Rate program and permanently exempt it and all of universal service from the Anti Deficiency Act; this legislation has not yet been introduced. The Terry/Boucher bill also proposes to divide the universal service fund into two separate pots – the first containing only the high cost fund, which provides subsidies to rural telecommunications carriers in order to provide affordable services to their customers; and the second containing the E-Rate, the Rural Health Care program, and two universal service programs that provide subsidies to low-income consumers. This segmentation could create two classes of universal service programs and bode ill for E-Rate and other programs in what appears to be a second class.
The other piece of legislation, introduced by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) on December 15, has not yet been released in its entirety. Reportedly, it would cap the overall universal service fund at $3.65 billion (significantly less than the current fund’s size) and make block grants of universal service funds to states based on an as-yet undetermined formula. Additionally, it appears that the DeMint legislation would allow universal service funds to support only very basic communication services (such as a single connection to low income and high cost households). It looks as if this bill would NOT allow universal service funds to provide schools and libraries with advanced services.
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Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act Update
ISTE Takes the Lead in CALEA Debate
ISTE has spearheaded the K-12 community's response to recent FCC rulings on CALEA. Passed in 1994, CALEA requires telecommunications carriers to install equipment to facilitate law enforcement’s ability to wiretap. Since 2001, the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have sought to extend CALEA to the Internet, thereby requiring Internet Service Providers to install standard equipment to enhance law enforcement’s ability to “wiretap” digital packets over the Internet.
"Our position, says ISTE's Hilary Goldmann, "is that schools should be exempt from CALEA compliance. We want a clear statement of that exemption."
But an FCC Order issued in mid-October 2005 is confusing on that point. On the one hand, the Order requires that "facilities-based" Internet service providers to be CALEA compliant within 18 months. The Order defines a facilities-based Internet provider as “entities that provide transmission or switching over their own facilities between the end user and the ISP.” Under this definition K-12 schools would be required to be CALEA compliant.
Provision 36 of the Order seems to state the opposite. It says that entities falling under the above definition that are providing Internet service to their customers or patrons are not necessarily considered subject to CALEA. A corresponding footnote elaborates: “Examples of these types of establishments may include some hotels, coffee shops, schools, libraries or book stores. DOJ has stated that it ‘has no desire to require such retail establishments to implement CALEA solutions.’”
"Our filing asks the Commission to confirm that K-12 schools are not covered by the Commission’s October Order requiring CALEA compliance," says Goldmann.
A final order from the Commission is not expected for quite some time.
The associations joining with ISTE on the CALEA filing are: the American Association of School Administrators; the Association of Educational Service Agencies; the Consortium for School Networking; the Council of Chief State School Officers; the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools; the National Association of Independent Schools; the National School Boards Association; and the National Education Association.
ISTE's Washington Notes is produced as a service to its members by International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) staff and the offices of Bernstein Strategy Group in Washington, DC. Copyright (c) 2006 ISTE
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Glossary
Conference Committee—A committee composed of temporary panelists from the House and Senate that meet to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill.
Fair use—A somewhat nebulous concept that is often misused by consumer groups, private organizations, and lawmakers alike. The definition, as set forth in Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act, states that fair use is the doctrine that allows an individual who has violated copyright to justify that use under "recognized public purposes." Such public purposes may include, "criticism, comment, news reporting, teacher (including multiple copies for classroom uses), scholarship, or research."
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—The 1997 reauthorzation of IDEA guarantees equal access to public education for people with disabilities. IDEA also includes a grant program to states and LEAs aimed at facilitating the education of children with disabilities by providing increased access to high quality programs and services.
Pay-as-you-go (PAYGO)—A Budget procedure that ensures that all legislation affecting direct spending or receipts is budget neutral in each fiscal year. Thus, any spending increases must be offset by funding cuts in other areas or tax increases.
Universal Design—"The term 'universal design' means a concept or philosophy for designing and delivering products and services that are usable by people with the widest possible range of functional capabilities, which include products and services that are directly usable (without requiring assistive technologies) and products and services that are made usable with assistive technologies." (Source: H.R. 4278, Improving Access to Assistive Technology for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004, Section 3)
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Compiled and edited by Leslie Harris & Associates for ISTE.
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