E-rate Update - SLC Board Meeting Notes
Message Posted April 23, 1998
On Tuesday, the Schools and Libraries Corporation Board met in Washington D.C. Below are a few tidbits of information that I picked up.
* There were approx. 30,000 Form 471s submitted during the 75-day window. This if far below what many had expected. Since the close of the window, they've had 'quite a few' applications filed.
* They still have no idea how much money has been requested in those applications and no date was given as to when funding commitment letters will be mailed.
* Only 15% of the applications received have no problems, about 10% of 471's are being rejected, 60-75% of the applications have problems that need resolving via calls to the school or library, but are not rejected.
* It appears the is a strong possibility that there will be a filing window beginning July 1, 1998, for the 1999 funding period, but no formal action was taken by the Board. Also, there was some indication that it may be longer than 75 days.
* There will be NO changes made to the application forms for the next funding year.
* CEO, Ira Fishman, requested that if schools and libraries have suggestions on on how to improve the application process, they should contact him directly. He can be reached by e-mail at ifishma@slcfund.org or by mail at:
Schools and Libraries Corporation, 1023 15th Street N.W., Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20005
* I met officials from New York City Schools and Philadelphia School District and can dispell a widespread rumor that New York City was applying for discounts that would exceed the total amount available. New York City applied for approx. $68 million (less their discount) and Philadelphia applied for approx. $15 million (less their discount).
* Finally, although just a pure arbitrary stab on my part, I have run some figures on what it will take to exceed the $2.25 billion limit. Assume that the 50 largest school districts apply for discounts of $20 million, totalling $1 billion. That leaves $1.25 billion to be divided by 30,000 applications. If you take the 30,000 applications that had been submitted, lessen that by the 10% that are being rejected, it comes to 27,000 applications. Which means that each of those 27,000 applications would have to be worth more than $46,000 in order to spend the $2.25 billion.
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Julie L. Tritt
Office of Educational Technology 717/787-5820
Pennsylvania Department of Education 717/787-7222 (fax)
333 Market Street, 10th Floor 00jtritt@psupen.psu.edu
Harrisburg, PA 17126 www.cas.psu.edu/pde.html
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