Corporate pressure blocks public schools and libraries from getting information superhighway discounts
Public schools may get smaller than expected discounts on Internet
connections following recent action by the Federal Communications
Commission.
By a 3-2 vote, FCC commissioners voted to scale back the “e-rate”
— the special discounts designed to connect schools and libraries to
the information superhighway. Congress passed a law in 1996 creating
the discounted rate, but major corporations — including AT&T and
MCI — lobbied successfully for relief from some of the law’s
requirements.
Education advocates, however, decried the changes, claiming schools
already have made plans expecting the deep discounts originally
promised under the law.
“The massacre of the infant e-rate continues,” said Rep. Major
Owens (D-N.Y.), a Congressional Black Caucus member. Owens charged that
“greedy corporations” are trying to deny children “vital access to
education technology in their schools and libraries.”
Under the new plan, telecommunications companies will pay no more
than $1.92 billion into the e-rate fund during the first eighteen
months of the program, a period that will last through June 30, 1999.
But the original plan called for $2.25 billion in corporate
contributions in 1998 alone — with additional contributions expected
next year. As a result, critics note start-up funding may be only 50
percent of the program’s original projections for its first two years.
