E-rate: More Important Than Ever
September 30, 2008
This is a guest post written by our Director of K-12 Operations and E-rate Expert, Paul Karlin
The country is facing serious financial challenges. Our nation’s school districts will experience the fallout through declining tax revenues and budget cuts. Will schools have to cut technology? How will our schools pay for their everyday technology costs, or keep up with technology changes that occur so often?
As 21st century educators, we recognize that technology is not a luxury or frill, it is a necessity. Thankfully, the E-rate program recognizes this fact, and helps schools cover their ongoing technology costs and infrastructure improvements in cases of financial need. The Federal E-rate (“Education rate”) program was started in 1998. It provides discounts of 20% to 90% to schools for typical tech costs such as Internet service and telephone service, as well as for the purchase and maintenance of network equipment. Eligibility for different types of products depends upon a school or district’s financial need. While it is common for all schools to receive discounts on, for instance, long distance service, only a small percentage of schools receive funds for hardware. Because E-rate funds come not from taxes but from the “Universal Service” fee on phone bills, it is a program that will not be cut – very important in today’s economic environment!
If your school or district is going through tough financial times, it is worth taking a close look at E-rate to see if there are ways to get more E-rate dollars, reduce local spending, and maintain or even improve their technology programs. Some entities are able to redistribute savings to areas of need. Many schools and districts maximize budgets in other creative ways that we would be happy to talk to you about.
Important questions to consider are:
Is your entity applying for all of the eligible products and services that it can? Surprisingly, many applicants do not realize that services for which they pay thousands of dollars are actually eligible for discounts.
Is your entity correctly filling out all required paperwork? As a federal program, E-rate is considered a pain to school administrators. But missing a date or filling in a form incorrectly can be very costly.
Has your free and reduced rate increased? Eligibility for free and reduced lunch is the measure used to determine program discounts. If your eligibility rate has increased, this means your entity is eligible for more money –- perhaps very significant dollars.
When the program first started, the $2.3 billion a year in funding for the entire nation seemed huge! Compared to the size of federal assistance to banks and other institutions, $2.3 billion seems paltry today, yet this program has effectively enabled our nation’s schools to connect to the Internet, join the 21st century, and to help address our current technology challenges.
Paul KarlinDirector, K-12 Operations
Smart Solutions
216-765-1122 ext. 8371
cell: 216-926-5997
pkarlin@smartsolutionsonline.com
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