Homer council asks FCC to preserve library internet subsidy

Cutting the federal E-rate discount would move $11,970 a year in public internet costs at the Homer Public Library onto the city's books. The Homer City Council adopted Resolution 26-058 on Sept. 14, urging the Federal Communications Commission to keep the program as currently constituted.

E-rate pays 70 percent of the library's public internet costs, according to the resolution. It says many southern Kenai Peninsula residents lack affordable online access and that the library has long used E-rate funds to provide a connection those patrons could not otherwise obtain. It also states the program supports internet service at public schools throughout the Kenai Peninsula, and that the proposed changes would reduce the library's ability to serve patrons, increase costs for the city, or both. Council member Aderhold sponsored the measure. Mayor Rachel Lord signed it, and City Clerk Amy Woodruff attested it. It carries no fiscal note.

The Alaska State Library says E-rate discounts are what make telecommunications and internet service affordable for public libraries in the state, and that changes to the program could raise the cost of both internet access and internal connections for those libraries. The SHLB Coalition, which represents schools, libraries and health providers, is campaigning against the proposal. E-rate provides roughly $3 billion a year in broadband discounts nationwide.

The FCC adopted its E-rate review on June 25 and published it in the Federal Register on Aug. 14, according to a Congressional Research Service report, which quotes FCC Chairman Brendan Carr describing a "top-to-bottom review." The review is examining whether E-rate's scope, administration and oversight should be narrowed or reoriented, not simply whether to retain the program unchanged. It also covers educational purpose, screen time and online safety. Alaska News has covered Alaska superintendents asking the FCC not to narrow E-rate, and the Homer library's request for state help with its internet bill.

At the Cordova City Council's Sept. 2 meeting, member Lee Collins said of the same federal review: "I don't think it's necessarily an option to say that students can learn without digital access to digital media."

Comments to the FCC are due Oct. 13. Reply comments are due Nov. 12.