A 21st-C Revise for E-rate

Photo by woodleywonderworks (www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks).

Supported by Edward J. Markey (D-MA), who crafted the House version of the first E-rate bill in 1996, which helped bring Internet connections to nearly all K–12 schools in the U.S., the updated law, E-Rate 2.0 (bit.ly/bPUjBI), would now grant discounts on services and technologies for ebooks.

Additionally, Markey is proposing to grant “low-income students” access to E-rate discounts in their homes and extend the discount to community colleges and Head Start programs through grants, which could be used for broadband equipment and services used to teach students. Markey also wants to expand the current $2.25 billion total cap on the E-rate program—set in 1996—so total funding can better reflect today’s pricing.

“The original E-rate bill has largely fulfilled its mission of linking up schools to the Web,” says Markey, in a statement. “Now, students need more than just Web access at school, and our E-Rate 2.0 bill is intended to reflect those expanded needs.”