GEN: (Forwarded): One Billion Dollars for School Networking

[Peter Milbury <pmilbury@ERICIR.SYR.EDU>]

DEAR LM_NET COLLEAGUES,

Important news from our friend, Bob Carlitz, founder of the superb listserv
for educators, KIDSPHERE, via a friend of school libraries, Laurie Maak.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 3 May 1996 03:04:54 -0400
From: Bob Carlitz <bob@hamlet.phyast.pitt.edu>
To: lmaak@netcom.com
Subject: One Billion Dollars for School Networking


        One Billion Dollars for School Networking

Recent federal legislation now in the implementation stage offers the
promise of as much as a one billion dollar annual subsidy for school
networking efforts in the United States.  The Telecommunications Act
of 1996 revises telecommunications law that has been on the books for
over 60 years and extends the concept of "universal service" to
include explicit subsidies for schools, libraries and rural health
care providers.  The magnitude of these subsidies and the mechanisms
by which they will be administered is the subject of a "rule making"
process now under way at the Federal Communications Commission.

This is a process in which public participation is possible, if not
traditional.  By using the Internet to mobilize public participation in
the FCC's rule making process, it may be possible to assure that the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 will meet the promise of helping to bring
Internet access to every school classroom and every public library in
the country.

So far participation in the FCC's rule making process on Universal
Service appears to have been dominated by the telecommunications industry
and by Washington-based nonprofits.  Although the Telecommunications Act
specifically targets schools for major new subsidies, only 2 school
districts out of 16,000 and only 3 state departments of education
have filed comments with the FCC on the subject of Universal Service.

The stakes in this effort are huge.  The present Universal Service fund
involves $700 million a year, and it is not implausible that the new
fund for schools, libraries and rural health care providers will be even
larger.  The tone of comments submitted to the FCC tends to support this
interpretation.  The exact size of the subsidy and the mechanism of its
distribution depend upon public input to the FCC.

Time is short if you would like to participate in the present phase of
the rule making process.  Indeed, you'll probably have to act in the
next day or two if you want to make a difference.  To make it possible
to deal with these complex issues in the short timeframe that is
available, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit known has Information
Renaissance is creating an online site which contains material relevant
to the FCC's current procedures on Universal Service.  The site at

        http://www.ckp.edu/info-ren/fcc/telecom.html

contains the following information:

        1- FCC rules and deadlines for the filing of "reply comments,"
        which are due with a current deadline of May 7.

        2- Information Renaissance's request to extend this deadline
        by one week so as to allow more widespread public participation.

        3- The text of comments that were submitted in the
        previous round of public input.

        4- Pointers to other online resources, particularly those
        at the FCC and the Benton Foundation, which are likely to
        be relevant to people wishing to submit reply comments.

If you begin to study these materials, you may find yourself online
for the better part of the upcoming weekend.  But, considering that
your efforts could well release funds on the order of $30 per student
per year (or a total of one billion dollars annually) for the support
of school networking, this may prove to be time well spent.  I hope
you will take a look at the online materials relating to the Universal
Service discussion and will choose to submit reply comments in time
for the FCC's May 7 deadline.  Information Renaissance will send out
an announcement if there is a positive response to its request to
extend this deadline.

Thanks,
Bob Carlitz
Executive Director
Information Renaissance