E-rate Reform activity continues to move forward. In a speech on March 17, 2014, to the Council of Chief State School Officers Legislative Conference, Chairman Wheeler announced that a special strike force will be formed to look at the E-rate program. The task force will be tasked with looking at the program and ensuring that E-rate funds are being wisely spent.
E-rate reform was also a topic of conversation at this week’s Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) conference in Washington, D.C. CoSN honored FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel for her exemplary leadership in promoting the use of education technology to improve K-12 learning. John Harrington, CEO of Funds For Learning, spoke at CoSN as part of an E-rate reform panel. As part of his remarks, he said, “The current commitment and enthusiasm for the E-rate program today is second only to that of the launch of the program back in 1997.”
The need for E-rate reform to happen quickly was addressed by the United States Conference of Mayors. The Conference submitted a letter to the FCC in which they asked the FCC to modernize and expand the E-rate program as quickly as possible.
