FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general in filing a comment letter with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) advocating that it maintains the E-Rate program, which was approved by Congress in 1996 and provides over $3 billion a year to discount the cost of internet expenses for schools and libraries across the country.
Public schools, including in Maryland, rely on E-Rate funding to set up and maintain high-speed internet access. Internet access doesn’t just help students and teachers access educational materials like curriculum, lesson plans, and software. Schools also need the internet for building security, HVAC, food services, and other operations. For some school districts, E-Rate represents 90% of their funding for broadband connectivity. If the FCC eliminates, or even diminishes, E-Rate support, it could reduce internet access and lead to cuts in local schools. Such an action would also likely violate federal law, as the program was established by Congress. The comment letter notes state and local school districts would bear the cost of expanding and maintaining broadband infrastructure if the FCC were to eliminate E-Rate.
In Maryland, the impact would reach well beyond schools. Last year, Marylanders used public libraries more than 25 million times to get online. Maryland’s public libraries receive about $800,000 a year through E-Rate to support internet services at 193 library locations across the state. E-Rate also helps fund the Statewide Automated Library Information Organization (SAILOR), a statewide network that serves more than half of Marylanders by connecting public libraries, local governments, colleges, and the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled. Without E-Rate, local taxpayers would pay more to keep this network running.
E-Rate also supports Maryland’s Head Start programs. It helps pay for internet service and the firewalls that protect children’s personal information. If E-Rate is cut, those costs would fall on already stretched local budgets, and smaller Head Start providers could be forced to delay critical upgrades.
In August, the FCC solicited comments on potential changes to the E-Rate program, including potentially eliminating the program altogether. The coalition’s comment letter notes that the E-Rate program was created by Congress, and it would be unlawful for the FCC to eliminate it unilaterally. The FCC is also looking at conditioning school funding on educational policies. For example, the FCC asked for comment on whether it could condition funding on a school’s educational outcomes. This would be unlawful and far beyond the FCC’s authority.
Attorney General Brown joined the letter with the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
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