GEN:One Billion Dollars for School Networking

[Joanne Sullivan <loris@POSTOFFICE.PTD.NET>]

On May 3, Peter Milbury forwarded a message RE: One Billion Dollars for
School Networking.
(See below.)

I looked at the recommended website after seeing your post on LM_NET.

Q.:  Have you any specific recommendations on what to request of the FCC?
 Are signed petitions inappropriate?

I know this bypasses my democratic right to draw conclusions from my own
research.  However, I know little about how these things work, and I
confess that I, (and,I suspect many well-meaning LM_NET colleagues), will
say nothing because I know too little about the big picture here and do
not wish to tackle this huge project which has enormously far-reaching
consequences. Like everyone else, I have a zillion katrillion bits of
things I'm working on and would also like to go for a walk today.

Have Bob Carlitz, Laurie Maak, Dr. McClure, Mike Eisenberg, AASL or
NYSC&TE (NY State Computers & Technology in Education) or other champions
of school networking set forth any recommendations or any mere petitions
that we could endorse?  Are there any lists of concisely stated
recommendations which I could tell the FCC I support and forward to the
FCC at (e-mail address please?) Would it be appropriate for such joined
efforts to be offered on LM_NET?  I am not political except insofar as I
am human.  In this, the Age of Sound Bytes, I feel embarrassed to ask
this of you, but not sufficiently embarrassed to sit here and say nothing.

The model of many grassroots movements precedes us. I know this is not an
apt comparison, but I wonder how much longer the Vietnam War, for
example, would have continued had people not joined together to make a
cogent and forceful statement. I'm not prepared to march, but I can
e-mail. Please correct me if I am out of line.

Joanne Sullivan
Narrowsburg Central School
loris@postoffice.ptd.net
_____________________________________________
On May 3, Peter Milbury wrote:
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.


From: Bob Carlitz <bob@hamlet.phyast.pitt.edu>
Subject: 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
______________________________


Joanne Sullivan
loris@postoffice.ptd.net