The FCC review that could end E-Rate is filed under children and screens

The federal review that could shrink or end E-Rate is filed under a docket titled Ensuring Children's Safe Use of Screens and E-Rate-Funded Services. The program does not pay for screens.

E-Rate discounts internet bills for schools and libraries by 20 to 90 percent depending on how poor and how remote they are. Education groups put Alaska's stake at more than $200 million a year. Alaska libraries and schools have until Oct. 13 to comment.

The Federal Communications Commission opened the review in June, asking whether the $3 billion-a-year program should be limited or sunset. Chairman Brendan Carr has argued most schools now have high-speed internet and that a program nearly 30 years old may have finished the job it was built for. The docket also asks whether schools taking the money should have to let parents opt their children out of screen-based instruction.

Stacy Hawthorne, who chairs the school technology association CoSN, wrote in July that the framing misses what the money does. "E-rate does not buy a single device. It does not buy a single app," she wrote. It pays for connections, wiring and Wi-Fi.

The Association of Alaska School Boards and the Alaska Superintendents Association both oppose narrowing the program. Reply comments are due Nov. 12.