{"id":32551,"date":"2020-08-04T18:40:55","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T18:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/e-ratepaorg.local\/?p=32551"},"modified":"2020-08-05T18:47:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:47:45","slug":"request-for-additional-e-rate-funding-for-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/?p=32551","title":{"rendered":"Request for Additional E-rate Funding for Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 4, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

Attached:\u00a0SECA Ltr to FCC re COVID Relief (08.03.2020)<\/a><\/p>\n

Attached:\u00a0FCC Standard Filing Instructions<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve received inquiries from several PA schools that have had to increase their existing Internet bandwidth due to the impact of the pandemic on your educational operations, asking whether E-rate will help pay for these increased costs.\u00a0 Currently, the only way this can happen is if applicants submit a late Form 471 and then seek a waiver from the FCC.\u00a0 Unless the FCC changes its waiver policy such a request is not likely to be approved under the current rules.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania schools are by no means alone in this predicament.\u00a0 Recognizing this nationwide need, the State E-rate Coordinators\u2019 Alliance (SECA) \u2013 an active, grassroots organization comprised of my fellow state E-rate coordinators in 46 states \u2013 sent a letter to FCC Chair Ajit Pai requesting the FCC to grant relief.\u00a0 The letter requested that schools be permitted to submit supplemental FY 2020 E-rate applications to request funding to help defray the cost of on-campus, additional E-rate eligible Internet that schools have purchased or will be purchasing due to COVID-19.\u00a0 The letter explains that schools did not anticipate that such bandwidth increases would be needed when they originally applied for E-rate funding during the Form 471 application window, and that there is precedent for such relief from previous national emergencies such as hurricanes and floods.\u00a0 SECA lays out several ways the FCC could administer the additional requests (appeals, late-filed 471s, or a special new 471 window) but no matter which option is selected, the bidding requirements would need to be waived because schools have increased or augmented their Internet bandwidth without conducting an E-rate competitive bidding procurement using the Form 470.\u00a0 A copy of the\u00a0SECA letter to the FCC<\/a>\u00a0is attached.<\/p>\n

In order to support this effort and convince the FCC to act, I have two specific requests of schools that may already have bought additional Internet or may have plans to do so:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Please take 2 minutes and complete this very brief survey –\u00a0https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/r\/moreinternet<\/a>\u00a0– which simply asks what additional amount of on-campus, E-rate eligible Internet you\u2019ve purchased (or will be purchasing) due to COVID.<\/li>\n
  2. Please consider sending letters of support to the FCC.\u00a0 I realized you are all swamped with back to school preparations, but unless the FCC hears from impacted schools, they may not understand the need.\u00a0 A letter explaining what additional amount of Internet bandwidth you need and why, can easily be submitted through the FCC\u2019s online comment system by either filing a brief comment in their\u00a0Express Filing System<\/a>\u00a0or by uploading a letter on school letterhead in their\u00a0Standard Filing System<\/a>\u00a0(see attached example of which form fields must be completed).\u00a0 In either filing system, use 02-6 as the Proceeding Number.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Please note:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0the SECA letter does\u00a0not\u00a0ask the FCC to allow E-rate to pay for home-based Internet for students and teachers.\u00a0 It is the FCC\u2019s position that such off-campus connectivity is not eligible for E-rate and that any such authorization and\/or relief must come from Congress.\u00a0 In terms of whether Congress will provide such authorization and funding, that remains to be seen as we are all awaiting the final stimulus package to be negotiated.<\/p>\n

    Thanks, E-raters.\u00a0 If you need help with writing or filing your comments to the FCC, please let me know.<\/p>\n

    — Julie<\/p>\n

    Julie Tritt Schell<\/p>\n

    Pennsylvania E-rate Coordinator
    \n717-730-7133 – o
    \n    jtschell@comcast.net<\/a>
    \n    www.e-ratepa.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

    Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    August 4, 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-listserve_archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}