Today, Funds For Learning is launching its second nationwide survey of E-rate applicants. Just like last year, we invite any E-rate applicant to take part in the survey. Go to http://www.fundsforlearning.com/survey to take the survey. The results of the survey will be published on FundsForLearning.com within the coming weeks.

Each spring, Funds For Learning receives questions from many E-rate stakeholders about where we expect the Priority Two discount threshold will be for the upcoming funding year. This year is no different. If we knew where it would end up, we would definitely share that information with you. Trying to estimate where the P2 discount threshold will solidify is like reading tea leaves...each person sees a different outcome based on the same set of data.

It's been six months since the "Broadband Data Improvement Act" (part of which includes the "Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act") was signed into law, but the FCC has yet to issue guidance to schools and libraries about how they can comply with this law. Normally, I would not be too concerned about this; however, we all know that when the FCC does issue its guidance, the auditors will arrive and begin to apply that ruling to all current funding commitments (and probably prior year funding commitments as well). Being held accountable retroactively for unpublished standards is not appropriate and it does not further the FCC OIG's goal of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.

We've all dreamt of the European-style, month-long vacation. In these tough economic times, people have invented the staycation. When the FCC takes as long as four weeks on site for an audit, should these be called "auditcations?"

Three elderly ladies in a 1984 Wendy's commercial had America asking "Where's the Beef?" Today, those of us in the E-rate world are wondering if the FCC's new slogan should be "Where's the Fraud?"

You may have noticed that the amount of E-rate funding requested for FY 2009 dropped by about $2 billion since yesterday. As we mentioned originally on February 16th, there appeared to be a really big typo on a funding request in Arizona. This typo has apparently been corrected--assumedly through the RAL correction process.Yesterday's Funding Requests totaled $5.87 billion, compared to $3.83 billion today.

In the next few days, the SLD will release two Funding Year 2008 funding waves to applicants throughout the country. If you receive an Internal Connections funding commitment in these waves, or in a future wave, the installation deadline for the commitment should be automatically extended to September 30, 2010.

Many of the schools that we work with are reporting that they are receiving PIA requests for information today. So far, the requests have focused on NSLP data/site verification. Also, if the school didn't submit their Item 21 attachments via the online system, the SLD is asking the applicants to do so. In cases where the applicant has sent Item 21 attachments via fax, mail, or email, the SLD is asking for the applicant to resend them directly to the reviewer.

We've just added a new feature to our website that will give you an at-a-glance summary of the E-rate program. The E-rate Summary can be found on our homepage and features a summary of pending, committed, and rejected requests for recent funding years.

With just a little more than a day remaining until the close of the FY 2009 Form 471 Filing Window, stress levels of E-rate applicants seem to be on the rise--for those that haven't yet completed their applications, at least. Stress can also be seen on the SLD's website. We have received a few reports that the SLD's site is having some intermittent issues today--and our own use of the site confirms this. We expect this to continue until the window closes.