Hearings on E-Rate
The concerns that many in Congress have over e-rate waste are voiced in an article yesterday at the New York Times (free registration required). Several examples are given of wasteful or outrageous expenditures (a $1,000,000 server for a 350 student elementary school?), but many still defend the program. Of the districts audited last year, one third were found to be out of compliance. I’d be curious to see what that means, however - does it just mean that their tech plan doesn’t match their erate application?
I hope the baby doesn’t get thrown out with the bath on this. Even if there has been wasteful spending and fraud, the majority of schools that have used this funding have been able to expand their networking infrastructure in critical ways that would never have been possible otherwise.