Important forwarded information - Save the E-Rate Update

[Mike Eisenberg <mike@ERICIR.SYR.EDU>]

This is important stuff!

Please consider responding in some way.

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From:   CoSN Membership List [mailto:MEMBERS@COSN.ORG] On Behalf Of Keith
Krueger
Sent:   Monday, June 01, 1998 1:53 PM
To:     MEMBERS@COSN.ORG
Subject:        [EDLINC:1075] Save the E-Rate Update

Following is the alert we sent out to update on the "Save the E-Rate
Campaign".  Please re-post to all lists.  Thank you!  Keith Krueger, CoSN


SAVE THE E-RATE UPDATE
from the American Association of School Administrators, the Consortium for
School Networking, the National Association of Independent Schools, the
National Catholic Educational Association, the National Education
Association, the National School Boards Association, and the U.S. Catholic
Conference's Department of Education
A little over two weeks ago, you received an urgent message from the Save
the E-Rate Campaign.  We urged you to visit our Web site at
http://congress.nw.dc.us/e-rate, and speak out to Congress, the FCC, and six
telecommunications companies threatening the program. Thanks to your
response, your Congressional representatives, the five FCC commissioners,
and the heads of SBC, GTE, BellSouth, AT&T, MCI and Sprint have been deluged
with e-mail messages supporting the program. To date, nearly 10,000 e-mails
have been sent. That is an outstanding response!
But the fight to preserve the E-Rate program is far from over. New threats
to the E-Rate program continue to surface:
* On May 8, the FCC suggested that only $1.67 billion be made available to
fund discounts in 1998, despite estimates that approximately $2.02 billion
in discounts will be needed this year. If this lower funding level is
adopted, many school and library applicants will be rejected or receive
reduced discounts for 1998.
* Time Magazine launched its own attack on the E-Rate program: a
May 25th  article, "Gore's Costly High-Wire Act," asserts that the E-Rate is
"an out-of-control entitlement" and that access to the Internet is not an
important national educational concern.  Time's position ignores the
bi-partisan support for this program which will ensure that every school
child has technology tools needed for the 21st Century.
* In a May 21 letter to the FCC, Consumers Union and the
Consumer Federation of America demanded that the FCC cease collection of
funds for the E-Rate program, effectively shutting-down the program, until
it addresses other problems these groups have with the implementation of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.
* On Capitol Hill, powerful Representatives and Senators continue to
threaten to make certain telecommunications services- particularly internal
connections-ineligible for E-Rate discounts.  The Schools and Libraries
Corporation estimates that over half of the $2.02 requested in 1998 is for
internal connections and most of that is for the poorest schools and
libraries.

As we near the time when the FCC must decide how much this program will
receive in 1998, it is critical that those of you who haven't contacted the
FCC's five commissioners do so. Moreover, continued pressure on Congress and
the telephone companies will help promote full funding for all services
currently eligible for discounts under the E-Rate program.
For quick and easy access to the FCC, Congress, and the telephone
companies, visit our web site at
http://congress.nw.dc.us/e-rate

Additionally, we recommend writing letters to the editor of your local
newspaper and contacting local television and radio stations to express
support for the program. If you would like to make your opinions known about
the Time Magazine article, you can reach Time at this address:
Letters@Time.com.
We will update you shortly on the status of this vital program. Until then,
thanks for your continued efforts to save the E-Rate!

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