Home AdvocacyPolicyWashington Notes2006 March

March 2006 Contents

• Senate Moves to Restore Education funding in FY07 Budget
• Specter-Harkin Amendment Key to Senate Resolution
• Cautious Optimism as Appropriations Process Continues
• ISTE Garnering Support in Congress for EETT
• Ed Tech Advocates Storm the Hill
• FTC Retains Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
• Copyright Office Opens Rulemaking under Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• E-Rate Update
• ETAN at Work

Senate Moves to Restore Education funding in FY07 Budget

In mid-March, the Senate took up and passed, by a narrow 50–49 margin, the FY07 Budget Resolution. This move was a direct repudiation of the Administration’s funding priorities, which eliminated the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program and more than 40 other education programs. The Senate-approved budget contains $16 billion more in funding for domestic discretionary programs, including education, than did the Administration’s proposed budget. Nearly half of that additional funding is aimed at restoring education, labor, and health and human service program funding to FY05 levels.

The House has yet to approve its version of a FY07 Budget Resolution and many hurdles exist to Congress reaching a final agreement on the budget. But the Senate’s bipartisan approval of additional funding for education and other domestic programs sends a strong message that it will push for more funding than the Administration proposes to allocate.

ISTE CEO Don Knezek said the Senate’s “recent moves to restore funding to FY05 budget levels are very encouraging. This is an excellent first step in a long march towards full funding for EETT and greater federal funding for educational technology. Educational technology programs are a key component to keep America innovative and competitive.”

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Specter-Harkin Amendment Key to Senate Resolution

The vehicle for the addition of $7 billion for education, labor and health and services programs was a bipartisan amendment sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education, and Senator Tom Harkin (R-IA), the Ranking Member on that Subcommittee. Specifically, the amendment proposed an additional $7 billion in advanced FY08 monies, with the ultimate goal of restoring all programs in these accounts to FY05 levels.

There was significant concern in the days leading up to the vote that the Specter-Harkin amendment might not pass. And with good reason—a number of amendments, including one by Senator Kennedy (D-MA) to restore higher education funding, failed on very close votes. In the end, 28 Republicans supported the Specter-Harkin amendment, joining 44 Democrats and 1 Independent for a final tally of 73 to 27—a stunning victory for the education, labor and health communities who came together and worked tirelessly to garner support for this amendment.

According to ISTE’s Director of Government Affairs, Hilary Goldmann, “The overwhelming bipartisan support in Specter-Harkin should be very valuable as the budget process continues. The House and the Administration won’t be able to ignore such a large margin of victory in final budget negotiations.”

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Cautious Optimism as Appropriations Process Continues

Theoretically, if the Senate Budget Resolution’s additional funding is retained through to a final Budget Resolution, then all education programs could be restored to FY05 levels. This would bring EETT program funding back up to $496 million.

“However,” cautions Goldmann, “the Senate Budget Resolution serves only as a blueprint for spending in the subsequent appropriations process and lacks the force of law. Thus, even if Congress agrees to keep the additional Specter-Harkin funding within a final budget resolution, there is no requirement that any approved budget increases go towards priorities identified in the amendments.”

The larger question is whether the House and the Administration can swallow the extra $16 billion in domestic discretionary funding that the Senate approved and reach an agreement on the Budget Resolution. Many observers are skeptical that the House will agree to follow the Senate’s lead. But there are increasing signs that a number of House members are starting to waver on strict funding limits.

Just after the Senate vote on Specter-Harkin, Representatives Nancy Johnson (R-CT) and Fred Upton (R-MI) sent a letter, signed by 21 other moderate House Republicans, to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) requesting an additional $8 million in domestic discretionary funding.

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ISTE Garnering Support in Congress for EETT

ISTE is working with other education and industry associations to restore the EETT program to $496 million, its FY 05 funding level. We’re also working closely with Education Technology Action Network (ETAN) state leaders and their members of congress as needed, and will mobilize the entire network shortly.

During a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, Rep. John Peterson (R-PA) grilled US Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings on the Administration’s proposal to eliminate (EETT), declaring that if students are not trained in technology, they will not be able to compete in the 21^st Century economy.

Representatives Judy Biggert (R-IL) and Ron Kind (D-WI) asked their congressional colleagues to sign onto a letter to House Appropriations leaders seeking the restoration of EETT funding to FY05 levels. When the bi-partisan Biggert-Kind letter was sent on March 16, it listed 42 cosigners overall, including 11 Republicans. The complete list is noted below.

NOTE: If you live in the home district of one of these representatives, ISTE encourages you to send a thank you fax or e-mail to their office. It can be brief, just a quick note thanking the member of Congress for signing onto the Dear Colleague letter in support of EETT. Don’t forget to add a few sentences about how education technology is impacting the students in your school or district! You can find the addresses for representatives on http://www.house.gov.

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Ed Tech Advocates Storm the Hill

A great deal of credit for this movement on education technology funding can be attributed to the groundswell of grassroots support that ed tech funding has received in recent weeks. On March 8, ISTE, the Consortium for School Networking, and the Software and Information Industry Association joined together to mount Advocacy Day 2006 in Washington, DC.

More than 150 educators and industry representatives from nearly 40 states and over 75 Congressional districts converged on Capitol Hill to deliver the message that federal leadership and funding of education technology is vital for America’s students to compete in a global marketplace.

ISTE CEO Don Knezek said, “Through Advocacy Day, ISTE, its members and industry representatives are leading the charge for better funding for key federal education technology legislation. This show of support from educators across the country, not only persuades key legislators regarding the importance of education technology; it is a significant step in improving the livelihoods of generations of American’s to come.”

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FTC Retains Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule

The Federal Trade Commission recently announced its decision to retain, without changes, its Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) regulations, which officially implement the law.

The COPPA regulations were issued in 1999 and require Web site or online service operators whose services are directed at children under 13 years old, as well as operators who have ‘actual knowledge’ that they are collecting personal information from children under 13, to obtain parental consent when collecting personal information from minors.

Under the FTC rules, the use of credit cards is a verifiable means of acquiring parental consent. Additionally, the FTC rules established a “sliding scale” approach for parental consent, which changes its measures of parental consent depending on how the operator of a Web site intends to use the information that it collects.

The decision to retain the COPPA requirements followed a public comment period where individuals and groups filed comments about the costs, benefits and potential modifications of the Rule. During this public comment period, the FTC also sought information on three specific issues Congress directed the agency to study:

1. the regulations’ effect on practices related to the collection and disclosure of information related to children;
2. their effect on children’s ability to access information of their choice online; and
3. their effect on the availability of Web sites directed to children.

In general, the FTC received good reviews on its implementation of the Act. Web site operators commented that, since the regulations were issued, they have limited the amount of information that they collect from children, and that the FTC restrictions were reasonable enough for children to maintain access to their sites and services. Also according to operators, few if any parental complaints have been made about the standards and how they have been implemented.

Using comments it received and information based on its own experience implementing these rules, the Commission will soon submit a report to Congress about the effectiveness of COPPA. The report will conclude that the risk to children’s privacy from an operator collecting personal information for internal use only remains relatively low.

More information about COPPA can be found at: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/03/coppa_frn.htm

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Copyright Office Opens Rulemaking under Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The U.S. Copyright Office recently posted a notice about public hearings regarding Section 1201 under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which prohibits the circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. The series of hearings are a part of its third round of triennial rulemaking proceedings.

This issue is taken up every three years to determine whether users of “classes of works” would be adversely affected in their ability to make noninfringing uses, including fair use, if they were prohibited from circumventing such technological measures. Library of Congress officials and other library professionals have been asked to present testimonies on whether exemptions to the Section 1201 prohibition should be extended or issued. The next rule will be issued in October 2006.

Public hearings will be held in Palo Alto, California on Thursday, March 23, 2006, and Friday, March 24, 2006. Public hearings will also be held in Washington, DC on Wednesday, March 29, 2006, Friday, March 31, 2006, Monday, April 3, 2006, and Tuesday, April 4, 2006, beginning at 9:30 A.M.

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E-Rate Update

As a prelude to introducing comprehensive legislation, the Senate Commerce Committee held a series of hearings on universal service in March. One of the hearings was devoted entirely to universal service recipients and provided some clues to if and how the Committee will address the E-Rate in forthcoming legislation.

Throughout the hearing, various facets of the E-Rate were explored by the witnesses, including Maine’s Department of Education representative Jeff Mao. In his testimony, Mr. Mao stated: “If the E-Rate program were to cease to exist, it would undoubtedly lead to significant setbacks in the progress of (Maine’s) innovative programs as well as the deployment and availability of broadband services throughout the state. The continuation of the E-Rate program is critical to Maine’s students and Maine’s future.”

Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), one of the authors of the E-Rate, noted that Maine had received $40 million through the E-Rate and praised E-Rate as “a constant reliable resource for every state in the union.” Her sole question focused not on how to constrain the E-Rate but on how it should be expanded. Mr. Mao responded to that question by stating that the program “must be responsive to growing needs” because “the amount of bandwidth used today is less than what we will need tomorrow.” This focus on bandwidth closely tracks ISTE’s expressed position on developing new performance measures for the program.

One possible focus of E-Rate legislation is means-testing applicants. Senator John Sununu (R-NH), a persistent critic of the program, stated that “many wealthy districts from around the country are getting a lot of dollars from E-Rate, reducing the amount of money available for low-income consumers.” Additionally, he implicitly criticized the E-Rate’s existence by calling for a return to the bedrock principles of universal service, serving the telephone needs of low income and rural customers. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) brought up the subject of wealthy schools receiving E-Rate dollars later in the hearing, asking whether a means test should be considered. Mr. Mao responded that the E-Rate already means-tested by ensuring that the vast majority of funds go to the lowest income recipients.

Another major issue discussed was the need to permanently exempt universal service and E-Rate from the Anti Deficiency Act (ADA). Senator Burns’ NetUSA bill includes a permanent exemption and he elicited testimony supporting an ADA exemption from both Mr. Mao and a witness representing the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Specifically, the NARUC representative stated that his constituents were troubled by the “uncertainty” engendered by only year-by-year exemptions.

The Senate also began moving this month to confirm a nominee to a seat that has been open for many months on the Federal Communications Commission. Robert McDowell, a lobbyist for the long distance telephone industry, was nominated by President Bush to the third Republican Commission seat on the FCC in February and received his confirmation hearing and approval from the Senate Commerce Committee in March. Mr. McDowell has announced no positions on the E-Rate program. His final confirmation by the full Senate is expected soon.

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ETAN at Work

The Ed Tech Action Network is a simple and effective way to make sure your voice is heard as Congress debates and negotiates the budget. ISTE’s Director of Government Affairs, Hilary Goldmann, relates how during a visit with Representative Thaddeus McCotter’s (R-MI) staff several weeks ago, she learned that his office had received “a lot of letters” on EETT last year.

“When the Biggert-Kind Dear Colleague letter began circulating in the House this month,” says Goldmann, “I contacted Rep. McCotter’s office and he ended up signing the letter. Then Ric Wiltse, who directs MACUL, ISTE’s Michigan Affiliate, sent a thank-you note on behalf of MACUL’s 4000 members.

“ETAN letters do have an impact,” says Goldmann. “And grassroots action is absolutely critical to the success of our efforts.”

So if educational technology issues are important to you, please join the ISTE/CoSN Ed Tech Action Network at http://www.edtechactionnetwork.org. This online advocacy enables you to send important messages to your Representative and Senators, learn more about timely education technology issues, and receive tips for communicating with elected officials. Your voice is critical for impacting the decisions of policy-makers!

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From the Washington, D.C.
Office of Bernstein Strategy Group
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Copyright © 2006 ISTE