A former assistant superintendent of Ecorse Public Schools, Michigan, has been sentenced to serve 46 months in jail after pleading guilty to mail and bank fraud charges in a scheme related to defrauding the E-rate program. According to the Department of Justice announcement, in 2002, Douglad Benit recommended that his school board award contracts to a company in which Benit had hidden ties.

Within the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act that was signed into law on March 11, 2009, is an earmark to i-SAFE, Inc. of Carlsbad, California.  The $300,000 earmark, requested by Congressman Don Young of Alaska, is to help the company expand its services and provide data it collects to the FBI, local law enforcement, the US Patent & Trademark Office, as well as firms such as the RIAA and ASCAP. The earmark declaration indicates that part of the funds will be used to develop an "E-Rate Certification Compliance Package" related to the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act.

The SLD issued a funding wave this week totaling $11.2 million in commitments and $17.2 million in reductions or rejections. This brings the total amount of funding committed for the funding year to $2.19 billion.

EDMOND, OKLA. (March 16, 2009) – The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on Feb. 17, provides $787.2 billion to stimulate the economy through tax relief, job creation and a wide array of spending programs.  This package includes significant funding for education initiatives, but there are strict guidelines governing how these funds may be spent.  This complicates matters for school administrators seeking to identify which components they can use to benefit their education community.

The Universal Service Administrative Company submitted their demand estimate to the Federal Communications Commission reporting that the estimate for the FY 2009 is $3.99 billion. This is a decrease of approximately $322 million from FY 2008. USAC’s analysis is based on all the applications that were filed within the Form 471 filing window.

USAC has issued a wave of Funding Year 2008 Priority Two denials for funding requests at or below the 86% discount rate threshold. This follows an announcement earlier this week that the Federal Communications Commission gave permission to USAC to move forward with their recommendation for the denials.

The Federal Communications Commission has approved the SLD's recommendation that Funding Year 2008 Priority Two funding requests at the 86% discount rate be denied due to a lack of available funding. This will affect funding requests totaling $159 million.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on February 13th that AT&T Technical Services Corporation has agreed to an $8.26 million E-rate settlement due to anti-competitive bidding practices.

EDMOND, OKLA. (Feb. 9, 2009) – The E-rate application process is extremely complex and often misunderstood.  To boost understanding of the E-rate program, Funds For Learning, the nation’s leading E-rate funding compliance services firm, introduces the E-rate Blog.  A new feature of the company’s redesigned Web site, the E-rate Blog offers information, tips and commentary from Funds For Learning’s E-rate compliance experts.

In its quarterly report to the Federal Communications Commission, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) has reported that approximately $1 billion in unused funds from previous Funding Years could be used to supplement current and future requests for E-rate discounts.  This is an increase of $100 million from the last quarterly report. Based on the FCC's Third Report and Order, the FCC can direct USAC to apply unused funds increase the amount of available funding for a funding year.